Shikotsumyaku
by Sleyman
Summary: Kimimaro is found, near death, by ANBU and taken back to Konoha to try and acquire the secrets of his bloodline. But, with Tsunade as the new Hokage, things may change for him. KimimaroxSakura Epilogue added! Epilogue-Epilogue Added!
1. Darkness

**Disclaimer: I do not own Naruto or any characters therein. They are all owned by Kishimoto Masashi.**

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_I'm dying…_

That was the last thing that went through Kimimaro's mind before he was engulfed by darkness. The sky moved overhead, but he stayed where he was. Stuck in place by the bones he had used the last of his strength to create in a final attempt to kill Gaara. He had failed. He had failed his mission… He had failed Orochimaru-sama.

Two pairs of feet came to rest on the branches of trees nearby. It was night time, so even if Kimimaro could have seen the pair approach he wouldn't have been able to make out the uniforms they wore. Or their masks.

A brief, whispered conversation was shard between them before they started carefully making their way up the bone spires that stood as a testament to the power of the last member of the Kaguya clan. A finger probed around his neck, trying to find a pulse.

'He's alive.'

No more was spoken, but the silent air was filled with the quiet chipping sound of rapidly blunting Kunai against bone.

* * *

'_He has severe damage to his lungs…'_

Leave me…

'…_Cursed seal is still deactivating…'_

Let me die…

'_Begin emergency treatment, we have to…'_

Stop.

'_It's been almost three hours, switch with me!'_

I failed him…

'_Don't make a mistake in the cell ratio…'_

Let me die…

* * *

A ceiling. Why was he looking at a ceiling?

Kimimaro was having a hard time figuring out whether or not he was dead, until he realised he was wondering whether or not he was dead. He also realised there was a tube down his throat. He instinctively retched. He would have tried to pull it out, but he didn't have the strength to move his arm. Plus, it was strapped to the bed.

'Please, don't fight the machine. Let it breathe for you.'

Kimimaro's eyes meandered around in their sockets dully, trying to find what had made the noise. After a few minutes, he was reasonably sure it was the potted plant next to him that had spoken. A soft hand touched his cheek and gingerly tilted his head a little to the left so that he could see who it was properly. It was a girl, probably a few years younger than he was, with pink hair, and eyes coloured somewhere between his own jade eyes and teal.

'How are you feeling?'

Kimimaro wouldn't have said anything, even if there wasn't a tube feeding him oxygen to deal with, in addition to the difficulty of forming words. Remembering the tube, the girl cast around for a moment.

'Are you feeling alright? Blink twice for "yes" and once for "no."'

With some grace, Kimimaro closed his eyes for a good few seconds before opening them again, and stared at her. She waited, just in case he was going to blink again. He didn't.

The girl scribbled something down on a clipboard before leaning close and pulling one of his eyes open and shining a light into it. He didn't even have the strength to cringe. She scribbled something else, and then excused herself, leaving him alone in a room with a potted plant, and a window with curtains.

* * *

'How are you feeling today, Kimimaro-kun?'

Kimimaro eyed Sakura dryly, but still said nothing.

'Better, or worse?'

He inclined his head stiffly, as best he could.

'That's good. You have to be in good shape to even have Tsunade-sama operate on you. I'd better change your clothes.'

Irritating. She was very irritating. Her pink hair, her fussing, and all her mindless chatter irritated him constantly. Maybe he could kill her while she was pulling the sleeve over… no, she'd remember that trick. Besides, clawing at her throat was a futile exercise if he couldn't even push hard enough to make a bone break her skin. All he could do was quietly fume while she changed his black hospital gown, unstrapping and strapping his arms back to the bed as she did so, all the while telling him all about how the other patients were doing.

From what he understood, he had been brought to Konohagakure by two ANBU members when he was close to dying. They wanted to study his bloodline ability, and for that it was preferable that he be alive for at least the first half of the study. In fact, it was probably also preferable that he be dead for the second half, but the new Hokage had refused to let them kill him partway through the study. She was a medical shinobi, so she at least had ethics. In his opinion, dying "right now" would be ethical, but the doctors and nurses would have none of that- much to his annoyance.

'Oh, don't make such a face.' Sakura said, pouting. 'If the operation goes well, you'll be able to breath on your own, and we can talk properly.' For just a second Kimimaro's arms strained against their bonds before he gave up on the idea of strangling her. How annoying.

Sakura was used to this sort of behaviour from him, so she took it in her stride. 'Ok, I'll see you in a few hours, Kimimaro-kun.'

It was all absurd. If the operation went well he'd be handed over to ANBU, and who knows what they'd do to him. Sakura probably didn't even realise it. But he could tell there was an ANBU squad just outside the window. Always watching. Just in case he ever did get a chance to kill Sakura.

* * *

'Kimimaro-kun?'

'Ag-h.' He coughed a few times. He did not feel good. Oh, no. He felt extremely un-good. The operation had been a "stunning success," he was still very much drugged-up, and Sakura was already trying to talk to him. He felt like he had been beaten up underwater, and his Earth Seal was pulsing irritably, amplifying his discomfort many times over.

'Do you recognise me?'

'…' speaking for the first time in a long while was difficult. His words were jumbled and inaudible.

'What?'

'Where is Uchiha Sasuke?' he managed, carefully connecting each sound until he had completed the question. Sakura went uncharacteristically quiet. At first Kimimaro wasn't sure if she was going to answer, but she did before he could repeat the question.

'He left…'

And if he wasn't here, he must have reached Orochimaru-sama. This raised some interesting points. He had completed his mission -sort of- and Orochimaru-sama probably thought he was dead. Although, since he had, effectively, outlived his usefulness, Orochimaru-sama probably didn't care so much about him. Then he _was _dead.

Suddenly, he felt extreme pain in his chest. He couldn't really do anything about it, either.

Sakura, who at the mention of Sasuke's name had apparently forgotten the reason she was there, reached out and put her palm on the painful area. He could feel her chakra entering him, and he immediately tried to push it back with his own.

'Calm down, it's alright' she said soothingly, eyes closed. She managed to get through to him, and he forced himself to relax as much as he could. He felt her chakra probing around inside his chest over…wait…that's what hurt so much. The Earth seal.

Sakura did the best she could to ease the pain with her limited experience. When it was finally over she moved her hand away, and the Earth seal was gone. Sakura said something about Irreversible Inhibitive Enzymes, but he wasn't paying much attention. The Earth seal -that Orochimaru-sama had given him- was gone.


	2. B Rank Mission

**Disclaimer: I do not own Naruto or any characters therein. They are all owned by Kishimoto Masashi.**

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Thump, swish, thump, swish, thump, swish…thump, swish, thump, swish, knock-knock, thump.

Tsunade's brow furrowed for a second. There had been a noise other than her stamping her approval on pieces of paper. Oh, the door, that must have been it.

'Come in.' Swish, thump, swish, thump, swish- she managed to get through the last few pages in the stack before Sakura entered. 'Ah, Sakura, come in.' This was a good opportunity to take a break from work. 'How's our "guest" doing?' It had struck the fifth Hokage that having Sakura take care of Kimimaro would be a unique learning experience for her. Whether or not she should let ANBU dissect him was another matter.

'Mmm… I've seen him hap- actually, I've never seen him happy at all- …he seems…kind of depressed.'

'Any idea why?'

'I'm not sure, but I think it might have something to do with the having the Cursed seal removed. Like it was a symbol that he was still connected to Orochimaru.'

'What makes you say that?'

'Intuition.'

'Alright. How is his breathing?'

'He can breathe by himself now, and he hasn't coughed up any blood since the operation. He seems fine to me.'

'That's good.' The room fell mostly silent as Tsunade tried to think of how best to phrase the next part. The only noises were coming from outside, and Kotetsu, who was quietly collecting the stamped pages Tsunade had been churning out for the last few hours. 'Sakura.'

'Hai?'

'I need you to do something for me…'

* * *

Being without the Earth seal was like being without his eyes and ears. He had no direction without it. It was the definitive proof that he was, in some way, useful to Orochimaru-sama. The only way he could have felt more useless was if he lost his Shikotsumyaku abilities, which were the only reasons Orochimaru-sama considered him useful in the first place.

But it had vanished. Like it had never been there at all. Did that mean Orochimaru-sama no longer considered him useful? Had he been cast out?

Wait…the girl…the girl had known it was going to happen. The fifth Hokage. She must have done something to the Earth seal!

He was getting angry, quite possibly, more angry than he had ever been in his entire life. Then again, it wasn't all that often that someone sabotaged his ability to further the dreams of the person he lived to serve. And he wasn't weak from sickness anymore.

The thick leather straps holding his arms in place stretched and squeaked under the force he was now able to bear against them. But it wasn't enough to satisfy him. The clasps were snapping frustratingly slowly, but he was getting there. When there was only a single clasp holding either of his arms, he lay back down and waited. Sakura would be coming back soon. And then he would make her tell him what they had done to him.

It took a bit of waiting for Sakura to return, but his rage hadn't lessened in the slightest. When she knocked and opened the door he was ready to grab her at the first chance he got, but when he saw her face his resolve faltered.

She looked…different. She wasn't smiling as she usually did, like she was trying to make him smile through osmosis. And she didn't immediately ask "How are you feeling today, Kimimaro-kun?" as she usually did. She just walked in, closed the door behind her, and sat down in the chair next to his bed with an expression like she was grieving someone's death. It was odd.

Before he knew it, his anger had ebbed away and he had totally forgotten that he was barely restrained anymore. What could have possibly happened that could make her act so strangely… Maybe, since she seemed to have become, in some bizarre way, attached to him, she had found out that ANBU were waiting for him, scalpels at the ready, and she was upset about it. It may have been lateral thinking, but to Kimimaro it seemed plausible. The Leaf ninja had a very different way of looking at things, after all.

'Did they tell you?'

'Eh?' Sakura was surprised. This was the first time Kimimaro had initiated a conversation or said anything without being asked a question first.

'That ANBU want to learn about my clan's abilities.' He elaborated.

'Wh-umm…yes. How did you know?'

'ANBU brought me here.'

'No, I mean how did you know I just found out?'

'…' He didn't have any certain answer to that. He decided not to say anything at all. After weeks of looking after him, Sakura could recognise subtle hints about what Kimimaro was thinking. From what she could tell, he was on unfamiliar ground, talking to her like this, and it was making him uncomfortable. She decided not to pursue the question any further.

'Alright, I guess I'd better change your…' it took him a moment to realise that she was staring at one of his forearms, more specifically, at the heavily damaged restraints. '…What happened to the straps?'

That one would be difficult to explain.

* * *

Sakura sat at the desk in her room and pondered the task Tsunade had set her. Basically, the mission had two possible outcomes. Success or failure, nothing in-between. The "Successful" scenario was that Kimimaro would essentially become a Konoha resident, and start taking missions like everyone else. The "Failure" scenario was that Kimimaro would remain fiercely loyal to Orochimaru, and have to be handed over to ANBU, which almost certainly meant death at a non-specific time somewhere in the future. It seemed like a straightforward assignment, but there was that "fierce loyalty" issue to deal with.

At first glance this might have looked like, say, a D or maybe a C rank mission. But considering that Kimimaro was one of Orochimaru's most loyal and dangerous followers, it was easily a B rank mission.

Certainly, making Kimimaro a Konoha ninja would benefit him on at least a psychological level -not to mention benefiting the entire village with his extraordinary fighting abilities- but the potential difficulty and danger was still… a little high for her liking.

Speaking of psychology, probably the only way to shake such steely determination to help Orochimaru, even if Orochimaru thought he was useless, was to give Kimimaro a new goal. And that required her to do a bit of investigating into why he was so loyal to Orochimaru in the first place.

The way Sakura saw it there were two main ways she could try and get this information out of him: one was to be very surreptitious, so he wouldn't realise (or care) that he was giving her useful information. The other way, which wasn't quite so appealing, but might still work, was to ask him outright and see how he reacted. Kind of like trying to figure out what "the-thing-on-the-floor" is by stepping on it. If she decided to do that, she would just have to hope the other end wouldn't swing up and hit her in the face.


	3. Enigma

**Disclaimer: I do not own Naruto or any characters therein. They are all owned by Kishimoto Masashi.**

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While Sakura's plan to get friendly with Kimimaro in order to find…well, anything she could use to help him seemed to be going fairly well under the circumstances, she had failed to consider the possibility that Kimimaro had a plan of his own.

He was still alive and would probably stay alive for the time being (unless someone killed him), so there might still be a way to get out of this situation and do something useful for Orochimaru-sama.

The fact that he hadn't been sent to a research lab, or at least a holding cell, struck him as strange, since studying him was the whole point of bringing him to Konoha in the first place. ANBU was still definitely watching his room, but that seemed more like a security measure than some kind of study. Sakura had also started asking him questions about his past. She hadn't done this before, so something was definitely going on. And he might be able to use it to his advantage. Answering Sakura's questions and being nothing but willing to cooperate seemed like an appropriate first step. And if things went well, he could be out of his hospital room prison within a few weeks.

But then, what if Orochimaru-sama didn't want him to do anything? He might accidentally interfere with a plan he didn't know about.

He needed to think about it more.

* * *

After the incident with the strap snapping, Kimimaro hadn't tried to break out of his restraints, and didn't seem as annoyed by Sakura's small talk. Then again, it was hard to read any kind of expression on his face. But one thing Sakura definitely noticed was the absence of any expression when she said something disrespectful about Orochimaru. Not a muscle in his face or hands so much as twitched. Maybe removing the Cursed seal had negated the effect of making him blindly obedient to Orochimaru. Or maybe he was still depressed about losing it. He was something of an enigma. Every observation she made about him could be interpreted in several different ways. And every time she thought she had found something out about him, it just raised more questions.

For example, if you asked most people "So, you broke the box?" and they had indeed broken the box, often they would try and explain exactly why they broke it to try and avoid any kind of penalty they might incur. Kimimaro would just answer with a "yes" or a "no." All he did was answer the questions. He didn't give any details. She guessed this was because when you were one of Orochimaru's followers, volunteering information could easily get you killed. But then, it might have just been a habit of his.

'Aaah!' _Shannaro! _Sakura slammed her head onto the desktop, just a little harder than was probably a good idea. The more she tried to understand Kimimaro, the more confused it made her. It just kept making her think in circles.

She had been keeping a journal and filling it with notes. Unfortunately, it was a mess. Nothing she found seemed especially relevant, and it was even hard to relate anything to anything else. The Kimimaro puzzle she was trying to complete in her mind was missing half the pieces, and all she could get to fill the spaces were checkers.

Yeah, this was going to take a while.

* * *

'Hn!'

'What is it?'

'Haruno Sakura has fallen asleep.'

'Where?'

'In the Kaguya's room.'

'What? Quickly, go-'

'Wait a minute, you two. If he tries anything, it'll take him at least a few seconds to get free.'

'But-'

'Also, this is a good opportunity to see whether or not he really wants to go back to Orochimaru. Let's just sit tight, and see what he does.'

Kimimaro was…uneasy. Sakura had been talking to him for around three hours now. She probably had a strong reason to pursue questioning him to such an extent, but he was unclear about what that reason was. She must have slept very little the previous night as well, since she had started falling asleep while he was talking. She had asked him to tell her how he had met Orochimaru-sama for the third time that week, and had finally fallen asleep, sitting in the chair and head on the side of the bed, using her arms as a pillow. He didn't know why she wanted to hear the story again, it wasn't like he was saying anything new, and he didn't know why she wanted to ask him questions when she was half asleep already. But one thing he knew with absolute certainty was that he didn't know what he should do in this situation.

For his entire life, dealing with people more-or-less meant killing them or following their orders. Whether or not he should wake up someone who was sleeping right next to him was not something he was familiar with. It had just never happened before. And if it had, it wouldn't have been under these circumstances.

As he debated, a thought occurred to him. In the entire time he had been in this room, he had only asked Sakura two or three questions, and only one of them was not a question about a question she had asked. Since he was going to be here for a while, maybe he could try and understand…people. Not something he ever claimed to know a great deal about.

He'd never really thought about it before, but he really didn't understand how other people thought, or why they acted the way they did. He certainly didn't understand Saku… In- in fact, he probably didn't even understand Orochimaru-sama. Yes, this was a good opportunity to better understand Orochimaru-sama's dream.

He let Sakura sleep, trying to ignore the tiny voice in the back of his head saying _"You didn't think of Orochimaru-sama first"_

* * *

'Nn-nno…leave bones alone…shannaro…he needs them…' Sakura woke with a start. A panicked expression passed over her face, until she looked up and saw Kimimaro watching her. Then a relieved look passed across her face before she realised that it wasn't normal to wake up to find someone, whose presence in Konoha was being kept a secret, staring at you. She was in Kimimaro's room. And at some point during the night she had taken his hand in hers. But the worst part was that Kimimaro had the closest thing to a smirk she could imagine occupying his normally impassive face.

It was probably just her imagination, since Kimimaro was trying to picture what she had been dreaming about. But even before that, seeing Sakura, as soon as he woke up was…well he didn't really know how to describe it. Unfamiliar? Interesting? …That wasn't quite right, but "unfamiliar" would do.

More importantly, Sakura was still staring at him, and she hadn't moved since she first saw him, and it seemed very likely that the only way to break her out of the trance would be to say something. Well, it was morning…

'Ohayou, Sakura.' Her reaction was, to say the least, not quite what he expected. For some reason she started babbling almost incoherently.

'K-k, Kimi-Kimimaro-kun! O-ohayou! How are you, today- feeling? Are, um, are you-oww, oww, oww… I'll be back!' As she stammered and mixed around words she sat up straight, which seemed likean extremely painful thing to do, stood up fast enough to knock the chair over, and nervously backed out of the room. Then she disappeared down the hall and her hurried footsteps faded into the distance.

Kimimaro lay in silence, increasingly unable to understand Sakura. He rubbed his fingers together absently.

Her hand had been warm.

* * *

A few days later Sakura had almost gotten over the incident with falling asleep, and she was starting to get an idea of why Kimimaro followed Orochimaru. As a matter of fact, it was a similar relationship to the one between Haku and Zabuza. A strange kind of "he is the one who gave me a purpose" situation. It must have made perfect sense to Kimimaro, but Sakura had a hard time getting her mind around it.

Since he had been answering her questions, and had been behaving himself, Sakura had decided to take away the restraints. It was still a bit early to let him wander around the hospital, but he might have even been able to walk around the village after a while.

Since he had been lying down for almost a month now, Kimimaro was easing himself onto his feet bit by bit. He was sitting on the edge of the bed and trying to get used to the altered flow of blood to his head. Sakura was hovering uncertainly, trying to decide whether or not she should help him or not.

When he actually stood up he was a little wobbly, but otherwise he seemed fine. And Sakura finally realised just how tall he was. She hadn't really tried picturing him standing up before, so she was relatively surprised when faced with facts. As it was, he was nearly a head taller than she was.

_Damn he's hot! Shannaro!_

Sakura managed to turn away while Kimimaro practiced shifting his weight from foot to foot, concealing the fact that her face had gone fairly red.


	4. DATE!

**Disclaimer: I do not own Naruto or any characters therein. They are all owned by Kishimoto Masashi.**

**Author Notes: This one took a while compared to the first three, but…well…yeah, so what? Huh? I wish I had a point sometimes- anyway, let's proceed to…**

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The streets of Konoha were alive with activity, as they usually were during the day. Children ran around, merchants called out from behind their stalls, the local (and some foreign) ninja went about their business, and Kimimaro trailed behind Sakura impassively. Sakura had picked out some clothes for him to wear -a fishnet chain shirt under a plain black shirt, dark grey pants bandaged around the ankles- that would make him stand out less. It wasn't quite going as planned.

Everywhere they went he drew much unwanted attention. The snow white hair, jade green eyes, fair skin and athletic build conspired to make people whisper, or stop and stare, when they passed. And more than a few times small groups of girls would flock to him and ask for his name. His cold stare and demeanour frequently revealed that he was, in fact, a ninja, but since nobody seemed to know who he was and the fact that he wasn't wearing a headband with the symbol of a village on it was somewhat confusing. Nobody actually found out that he used to be a member of Otogakure, since the only people who knew who he was beside himself, Sakura, Tsunade and ANBU had been instructed to keep that quiet. An ANBU squad was definitely keeping an eye on him from a distance, but they never caused trouble if they didn't have to.

Some red cloth caught Sakura's attention and she turned to see Ichiraku Ramen, the place where, if you were looking for Naruto- you had come to the right place. With Naruto gone, the stall had been experiencing lower sales that usual, but the food was good enough to attract more than enough customers. It didn't take too long for Sakura to decide to stop there. She was getting hungry after walking around the village for hours and Kimimaro probably was too, though he wouldn't show it.

The place had a nostalgic feel to it, even if you had only been there once or twice. As she ate, Sakura remembered various things Team 7 had been through together. Some good, some bad, some-

'Hi, Sakura!'

'Hwlghh!' Sakura half swallowed- half spat the food in her mouth before coughing violently a few times.

'Uh, sorry…'

'What do you want, Ino? Suddenly-'

'Hey, I just saw you sitting here so I thought I'd…' Ino trailed off when she noticed someone observing her. Someone she didn't recognise, and who was sitting next to Sakura. 'Someone you know?'

'…Oh, this is Kaguya Kimimaro. He just came here from the country of Water.' Kimimaro nodded his concurrence to this statement. Ino looked at Sakura, then at Kimimaro, then back at Sakura. After a moment of assessing the information, Ino's expression smoothly transitioned between surprise and confusion a few times before settling on a sly grin.

'Sakura…' Ino pulled Sakura slightly to one side and lowered her voice. 'I didn't just interrupt your _date_ did I?'

'_**Date?**_' Taken off guard, she blurted it out without thinking. The only thing that broke the silence that followed was a quiet slurping as Kimimaro finished his Ramen, unperturbed by Sakura's sudden outburst.

* * *

'Hey, wait! What are you so mad about?'

'I'm not mad!'

'Then slow down for a second!'

'Why did you have to say something so strange?'

'You mean that you two are-ahhg!' Sakura pulled Ino into a headlock while still walking.

'We're not on a date-'

'-Let go!'

'I'm just showing him around.' Ino managed to wriggle free, jumped out of Sakura's reach and fell back into pace with her when she didn't try to get her into a headlock again.

'Is that all?'

'Mm.'

'Really?'

'Mm.'

Ino eyed Kimimaro, who was still following a short distance behind, absently taking in the scenery. '…Then you won't mind if he goes out with me then? Kimima-aaah!' Ino found herself in a headlock again.

'Don't.'

'Why not?'

'…Just don't, ok?'

'So you _are _interested in him!'

'I told you, it's not like that!'

'Then what's the problem?'

'Just leave him alone!'

'No! Kimimaro-kun, help me!'

'Why you…!' Even if they had made up somewhat after their fight during the Chuunin Exam, some habits died hard.

* * *

The room was dull and bare, and Kimimaro couldn't help but feel his presence did nothing to alter the atmosphere. The small house, in a quietly crowded part of the village, had very little furniture and judging by the thin blanket of dust over everything, it hadn't seen habitation in a while either

Putting that to one side, he had to admit that he liked it. It didn't have any unnecessary objects (since, really, the only thing there was a bed), and he could come and go as he pleased. That might take some getting used to, but he looked forward to the experience.

As always, ANBU were probably close by, waiting for him to make one wrong move. But he wasn't going to do anything untoward, and if he did he'd make sure they weren't watching. In which case, maybe they knew watching him was a futile exercise, and they weren't actually there… no, that was too far-fetched. They were out there somewhere.

'…' A hand swayed left and right above two cards being held in another hand.

'Hurry up and pick a card.'

'…This one!' The speaker was very displeased by the fact that he had taken the Queen of Spades, and proceeded to mix his cards around behind his back.

His opponent took the three of diamonds, without hesitation. 'Looks like you're the Old Maid again.'

'…What's the target doing?'

'Target is still inside the house.'

'Alright, get comfortable. We'll probably be here for a while… One more game.'

One of the ANBU squad members smiled under her mask and collected the cards. She never lost with her deck.

* * *

The room was dull and bare, and Sakura couldn't help but feel Kimimaro hadn't exactly gone to great lengths to make it any less so in the few days he had been living there. The place was empty and covered in dust. The only things that weren't dusty were the bed, a chair, and certain foot-shaped sections of the floor. It was kind of…disturbing. Almost like Kimimaro had purposefully foregone cleaning, since it wouldn't matter if the room was clean or not once ANBU got their way. Kimimaro and his precious few belongings could all be swept away with less effort than it would take to clean the small house. Sakura shivered at the thought and turned to Kimimaro.

'The first thing we need to do is sweep up all that dust.' She handed him a broom and suggested he get started with that. Watching him sweep was like… It was kind of like watching an old man, whose heart just wasn't in it, sweep: slightly awkward, a little haphazard and anything _but _efficient. Most of what he swept flew into the air straight away before settling again once he had moved on. Quite a bit of it was settling on him as well.

After a while of watching him sweep around the house for a while Sakura decided to give him a few suggestions along the lines of "more scraping, less follow-through." He seemed to understand. When she thought about how he had acted when he first came to the hospital, it was pretty strange how he listened to her. Maybe he had started enjoying her company? Or maybe he had just accepted that she was a fact of life that must be tolerated. Either way, he seemed calmer that he used to be.

By the time he had managed to get everything into a pile, a lot of the dust was still airborne and Sakura felt like she needed a bath. But that could wait until everything was properly cleaned.

Of course, then she'd have to help Kimimaro buy some furniture and decorations. Tsunade had supplied her with a little money for this very reason.

* * *

'Wait a sec-wait-wait-wait-oww!'

Kimimaro failed to take the full weight of the couch before Sakura dropped her end onto her foot. He watched her squeeze her toes for a few seconds. She made eye contact. He looked into her eyes blankly, blinked, and started dragging the couch across the floor.

'Hey! A girl's hurt! Don't just leave!' she yelled and tossed a cushion at him. He set the couch down and smiled at her. Wait, no- that was a grin. He was joking. _What? He had a sense of humour all along! SHANNARO!_

'Are you alright?'

'I'm fine. Just put the couch…over there' she pointed to a wall, where there was ample space to put it. Kimimaro carefully manoeuvred the couch across the room to the place Sakura had pointed out. The Feng Shui aspect of its placement was fine, she just wasn't sure about the direction it was facing. If anyone tried to sit on it they would have to be cross-legged, with a wall not far from their face. Kimimaro must have been giving that sense of humour a work-out today. Either that or he didn't consider the couch to be a functional piece of furniture.

This was going to take a while.

Kimimaro watched Sakura carefully. She was asleep.

After the excitement of the shopping trip, and subsequent introduction of furniture and nick-knacks to his home, she had sat down on the couch to have a rest and left him to arrange several useless objects around the house to make it look more "lived-in." He had arranged them in a neat pile in a corner of his bedroom, and Sakura would probably have something to say about it when she woke up.

It was…curious that she was able to fall asleep under such conditions. All things considered, she should have been afraid of him. But ever since their first conscious encounter she never seemed to think that he was any kind of threat to her. He couldn't imagine why she thought this way, but that was probably part of the reason he found her confusing.

The real question was: should he wake her up? If he didn't and she woke up by herself in the middle of the night, he couldn't predict what she would do. On the other hand, if she woke up now and saw how he had "arranged" the ornaments she would probably bustle around rearranging everything for hours. Then again, this wasn't the first time she had fallen asleep nearby. But, if he woke her up now, there was a chance that she would panic and scream, quite possibly drawing a lot of unwanted attention from ANBU… She did look peaceful, there, on the couch…

He decided against waking her up.


	5. Daily Life

**Disclaimer: I do not own Naruto or any characters therein. They are all owned by Kishimoto Masashi.**

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_Hwoo. Hwoow. Woow… Whehw._

'Mmn-Owl…'

…_Whoo__-hoo-hoo-hoo-hoow._

Sakura shifted in her half-sleep. She turned her head to a more comfortable angle, and discovered that she had been lying in an uncomfortable position for a little too long.

'Tc-kuckck-ctk' said her neck, and a few other joints agreed.

'…Aaah…!'

Then she began the normal process of waking up; who am I? What am I? My head _is_ up there. I'm wearing clothes. There's hair in my mouth…my hair. My feet are cold. What is this I'm lying on? And finally, where am I?

As an after-service her brain ran through the previous day's events to make sure nothing… well, nothing she might regret had happened. It found nothing of particular interest, but it did manage to figure out where she must have been. Her eyes did a quick sweep of the room, and managed to catch sight of Kimimaro looking at her through a doorway. She had been half expecting him to be doing something like that, so she managed to not yell in shock.

'Umm…hi.'

'Good morning.'

'Have I been…uh…'

'Yes.'

'For how long?'

'Most of the night.'

This was bad. She didn't know why it was bad, but she knew it was.

'Why didn't you wake me up?'

'…' Kimimaro gave one of his "it's difficult to explain" or "various reasons" looks.

* * *

'So…' Ino began, her voice radiating slyness. 'How far have you gotten with your new boyfriend?' Ino had tried to time the question in such a way that Sakura would be in the middle of drinking her water by the time she finished asking. It was, generally, quite funny when you could make people gag from embarrassment. In fact, Sakura would have spat the water all over Ino, so it was fortunate that she swallowed before Ino could finish.

'I told you, we're not going out!'

'So you say- but what were you doing so early in the morning? I saw you going home, which was kind of strange.'

'I was just helping him move some furniture-'

'-Woah, so you are serious!'

'What?'

'You're moving in with him already, things _must_ be going well!'

'_His _furniture!'

Seeking to keep Sakura on the defensive, Ino took a conversational step back to exploit another part of the story. 'Oh? And why were you there that late?'

'I…' _Damn_ she thought. '…Fell asleep.'

Ino said nothing. She didn't have to. All she needed to do was cover her mouth with her hand and widen her eyes in an accusing mix of amazement, pride, and amusement.

'No- not _with_ him! Just asleep!'

Ino's expression remained the same, although her eyebrows raised themselves a little, and she leaned further back.

'Nothing happened!'

'Really…?' Ino drew the word out gleefully.

'Yes, really- _nothing_ happened.'

'Coward.'

Sakura gritted her teeth and glared at Ino darkly. '_**Eh?**_'

'I mean, you could have at least fallen asleep in his arms like "Kimimaro-kuuun"' she used her most syrupy girly voice and hugged her own shoulders. 'But then again, if you're _really _not interested in him, I might still have a chance' she beamed, before she once again fell victim to a Sakura Headlock.

It did occur to Sakura that Kimimaro had come at a time when a lot of people were still coming to terms with the fact that Sasuke had betrayed Konoha. He was fairly attractive, and Ino seemed to have seen him as a chance to forget about Sasuke. And it couldn't hurt to help a friend, namely Sakura, do the same thing, could it?

It was thoughtful of her, but that didn't change the fact that she was being an annoying bitch!

'Aggheh- lhe me gho!'

'Shut up! You were asking for it!'

* * *

Logs are, by nature, pacifists. They never actively seek out combat of any kind, and this is not necessarily because they are dead (or at least half way there). In fact, prior to being a log, any given part of a tree is also naturally inclined to pacifism (apart from Gum trees, which are sadistic, and tend to drop branches with no warning at all). However, this does not necessarily mean that a log will never find itself the target of some physical abuse. Kimimaro was observing this happen. To most people it would be called "training." To a log, it might be called "brutality" if logs could speak, or feel, or think and all that. As Kimimaro was a person, he tended to agree that it was "training."

The person inflicting the "training" on the log in question was a girl that he didn't recognise. From the look of it, she was trying to improve the level of shock her arms could withstand or increase her overall strength. Or both. She was repeatedly and consistently hitting the log, which showed extensive signs of "training," with open palm strikes. It was probably the fighting style of a clan that he wasn't overly familiar with.

He had come here, after seeing the place a few days beforehand, with the intention of doing some taijutsu training of his own. However, it seemed that someone had beaten him to it. The "early bird," as it were, catches the log. For no particular reason, he had decided to stay out of earshot (which wasn't all that far since he wasn't in the habit of making any noise if he could at all help it) and watch her practice.

Since she was attacking a non-living, and more importantly; stationary, target he couldn't really critique her style or form with any degree of accuracy but he got the distinct impression that she herself was not at all happy with her skills.

After a while she decided to have a break. Kimimaro made no attempt to hide, since her stopping removed the possibility that he might interrupt her, and also made no attempt to conceal the fact that he had been watching her, since he didn't care. She spotted him very quickly, and immediately hid behind the vertical log she had been hitting, her face turning red.

'Ah…um…uh…' she said in an anxious, altogether too quiet voice. Kimimaro stood up and walked a little closer. The girl moved further behind the log so that only half of her face was visible. Kimimaro, not of the particularly sociable persuasion, didn't really know what to say. Voicing some weaknesses in her form might have been a good conversation starter, but he didn't really have anything to say on the matter.

There were two heavily worn logs beside the one the girl had been practicing on. He walked over to the furthest one without a word and started practicing simple kicks and punches to get a feel of to what degree his body had recovered. He didn't need to worry about his Shikotsumyaku abilities, but if he was going to have to go on missions for this village, and he didn't have his Earth Seal anymore, he at least wanted to have his taijutsu up to scratch.

The log, although being quite thick, vibrated slightly when he struck it particularly hard. The girl, still mostly hiding from view two logs away, watched him with a mixture of caution and awe.

* * *

Tsunade leafed through the stack of paper that had just been placed on her desk to see if there was any particular part she could skip reading. It was a detailed observational report from the ANBU team assigned to Kimimaro. Without even looking at it, she was pretty sure she didn't need to see "Recommended Action" and "Suspicious Behaviour" would probably only needed a skim through. Of particular interest were the clearly underlined sections about each time Kimimaro had the opportunity to escape or harm the villagers but failed to do so, which the team leader had grudgingly agreed to underline. It was ANBU's not-so hidden agenda to kill him, so it wasn't much of a surprise that they were reporting everything he did in the most negative way possible. It had been extremely useful to have Sakura be a less biased source of information after all.

However, in several places in the report the team leader raised concerns that his behaviour was "too good to be true." Unfortunately, she had to agree with at least a few of them. His readiness to betray Orochimaru begged questioning, and Sakura's own descriptions of his positive personality changes were at least a _little_ suspicious. Then again, the fact that he didn't appear to be at all interested in escaping made the whole thing even less clear. It could have indicated that he really did intend to stay, or that he was doing his best to deceive them into thinking he was.

The situation still needed to be handled carefully, and with a knife at the ready. Tsunade's train of thought was then interrupted by a knock at the door.

'Come in… Oh, Sakura. Good timing.'

* * *

Kimimaro poked at the meat and vegetables grilling in front of him, making a point of ignoring Rock Lee. He was sitting a few tables away with his team mates and Jounin instructor. When Kimimaro had come in and walked past their table, Lee had recognised him instantly but said nothing because of Tsunade's orders. And he had been taken aback when Kimimaro had totally ignored him.

'Someone you know?' asked Tenten while trying to decide whether or not it was too early to flip some of the meat. Lee was about to explain about the time they had fought each-other before he remembered he wasn't supposed to do that.

'Well…I don't know his name…'

'But you've met him before?'

Lee wasn't the greatest when it came to making up stories, so it came as a relief when someone provided what seemed to be an explanation. Sakura entered the restaurant and made her way over to Kimimaro. If Lee had been taken aback when Kimimaro ignored him, seeing him with Sakura made him positively livid. But, it did seem to explain to Tenten and Neji why Lee knew Kimimaro, saving Guy (who was being uncharacteristically quiet) the trouble of making up a story for Lee.

'Oh, that's too bad Lee…' Tenten decided it was more-or-less time to flip everything over.

'Why, Sakura-san? Why with him? What's going on?'

'Don't worry, Lee! Don't give up!'

'…Guy-sensei…?' Guy's sudden outburst raised Lee's hopes, until he dashed them again in one fell swoop.

'There are plenty more fish in the sea! A real man knows when to give up!'

'_You're saying I have no chance against him?_'

'Hmmm…I wonder what they're talking about…' said Tenten, watching Sakura explain something. Then she turned back to the conversation that had been happening at their table. '…Lee? Are you crying?'


	6. The Wasp

**Disclaimer: I do not own Naruto or any characters therein. They are all owned by Kishimoto Masashi.**

**Author's scribblings/notes: Man, this one was a hard slog. Every page, a desperate battle of staring and patience. But here it is! ****_The Wasp._ In which the importance of honorifics are discussed, why stalking people is never a good idea, and how Kimimaro learns how difficult it is to rebuild a man.  
Thanks to all of you who R&R'd...ed. You really helped get me through it!**

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Kimimaro stood stiffly in the Hokage's office with his usual impassive stare while Tsunade thumbed through a small stack of paper on her desk. She wanted to get through the last little bit of paperwork before she…talked to Kimimaro. And once that was taken care of, she would have more, larger stacks of paper to look at. Such were the affairs of state.

She decided the stack was of little interest, and gently dropped it onto a precarious stack of paper next to her, that somehow managed to avoid falling over. She rubbed her eyes, brushed some hair out of her face and examined Kimimaro critically. The new clothes made him look less suspicious and he also looked healthier than the last time she had seen him. Granted, he had virtually been on his death bed at the time, but he looked less…like a zombie, she supposed- more lively. He had regained a healthy amount of body fat too.

'How are you feeling today?'

Kimimaro made a face as though he was reliving a particularly annoying memory, but it lasted only a moment before his face relaxed into an impassive mask. 'Well' he said after a moment's consideration.

'That's good to hear. No burning sensation where the Cursed Seal used to be?'

Kimimaro bristled slightly at the question but remained silent. She took that as a "No." She hadn't really considered the possibility that it would be this hard to get him to open up. She should have, but she hadn't. Sakura almost made him sound like a pleasant, but quiet individual, so she hadn't put much thought into it. She needed to crack the mask somehow.

And then, it came to her. Like a vision. A totally natural-sounding -and subtle- way to make him feel that this little talk was less about him than was actually the case.

'How is Sakura?' The question took Kimimaro off guard, and while he was still wondering what was going on Tsunade added 'actually, that's one of the things I wanted to ask you about. I'm worried that Sakura might be feeling a bit depressed.' A ripple of understanding passed over Kimimaro's face briefly. It was a flat-out lie, but he accepted it, and seemed less on-edge now. 'So, has she been acting strangely at all?'

Kimimaro looked at the floor and pondered the question seriously. His eyebrows were lowered slightly in the effort of digging through the events of the last few days, a look of genuine concern in his eyes. Maybe he wasn't so bad after all… No, it was dangerous to think that way, but maybe she could trust him a little more.

Eventually Kimimaro said 'I don't know' uncertainly. The Hokage thought through her next move carefully. The way she delivered it would be important.

'Well then, I'd like you to do something for me. Consider it your first mission.' She waited a few seconds, and then pretended she had just remembered something important. 'Oh- that is, assuming you intend to become part of this village…'

Behind the stony expression, Kimimaro was surprised. He hadn't expected to get a chance like this so soon. He made a show of straightening up a little and standing to attention.

'What is the mission, Hokage-sama?'

'I'd like you to keep an eye on Sakura for me, make sure she isn't actually getting depressed.'

'I will do so.' He turned to leave.

'Oh, by the way, I don't think we need ANBU to follow you around anymore, do you?' She could see in his eyes that he suspected it was a lie. Oh well, she'd just need an ANBU squad or possibly a skilled Jounin to follow him more discreetly. 'I'll see you another time, Kaguya-kun. You can pick up your forehead-protector outside.'

* * *

Even though the Hokage had said that ANBU wasn't going to be following him anymore, he expected them to still be there, but even more invisible than they had been before. So, it was odd that he kept getting the feeling that someone was staring at him from behind. He turned around quickly and sure enough, someone behind him ducked into an alleyway. He caught a glimpse of green and orange. He had a feeling he knew who it was.

He walked on. A few minutes later he turned again. This time his pursuer was better prepared, as he didn't see them at all. He walked a little more and then broke into a run. He turned a corner, stopped and leaned against a wall. A few seconds later Rock Lee came tearing around the corner, and gasped when he realised he had been discovered.

'What do you want?'

Lee jumped backwards to the opposite side of the narrow alley, nearly knocking over a passer-by as he did so. He hadn't planned to be caught, so he had to think on his feet.

'W-what are you planning?'

Kimimaro blinked carefully at this question. 'Planning?'

'Well…the Hokage did say you were allowed to be here- but what are you going to do to Sakura-san?'

'Sakura?'

Lee was mildly outraged at his failure to use an honorific after Sakura's name. He was an enemy, so why was he acting so familiar towards her?

'Don't play dumb! You were from-' he stopped and looked around to check if anyone was around, which they were. He had forgotten about not mentioning that Kimimaro was from Otogakure. 'You're not from Konoha- so I don't trust you. And I will not let you hurt Sakura-san.'

Kimimaro paused. This was either going to be an annoying or a fortuitous meeting. On one hand, he could just ignore Lee –he was a trash ninja, as long as he didn't have any alcohol- and let him scurry around until he thought that he had no ill-intentions. On the other hand, if he made Lee trust him, that could ease the difficulty of being accepted as a Konoha shinobi, if only slightly.

Kimimaro weighed up the options seriously, not realising he was still staring at Lee, who felt as though the stare was passing straight though him like he wasn't there. And he didn't much like that feeling. It was almost insulting.

'If you prefer, I can just defeat you here' Lee said, bristling indignantly. Kimimaro refocussed his eyes on Lee, and decided on the latter option.

* * *

'So, Lee was following you around?'

Kimimaro nodded. Sakura didn't really need to ask why. It would have been for a number of reasons.

'Did anything else happen?'

Kimimaro didn't answer. He put his finger to his lips and stood up. He silently moved to a corner of the room. As Sakura watched, he raised a foot and kicked the wall. The dull "thud" of his foot striking it was echoed by a "thump" from outside the window. Sakura glanced at it in time to see Lee picking himself up before he ran away. She could have sworn he was crying.

'Wait, did he follow you here?'

'Yes.'

'And…he was out there the entire time?'

'Yes.'

'So…he would have seen me coming in?'

'Yes.'

_Oh god_ Her face must have betrayed what she was thinking, because Kimimaro gave her a questioning, if indifferent, look. His nonchalant attitude was getting on her nerves.

'Aaah! If Ino finds out that I come here on a regular basis she'll never shut up! It was bad enough before! Why didn't you make him go away earlier? Why! Why do you always have to be like that?'

The thought of stopping didn't cross her mind until she already had. It had all just blurted out. Kimimaro was watching her quietly. He knew better than to answer a rhetorical question.

Sakura's mouth moved wordlessly for a few seconds while she came to terms with what she had just said. '…Sorry…forget I said that…' she trailed off and put her face in her hands. She could deal with Ino, and Lee, but she was still getting worked up over it.

The stress was finally getting to her. Ever since Sasuke left she'd been trying to keep it to one side, to keep it all safely hidden where not even Inner Sakura could get to it. But there was only so much you could fit into that space. And when it came out again, it all came out at once. She didn't want to cry. She had sworn to herself that she wasn't going to cry anymore.

It was hard for Kimimaro to understand Sakura on a day-to-day basis, so when she acted differently he was completely thrown off balance. And this was acting differently in a big way, so it was more like someone had kicked out his legs from under him and punched him in the face so that he swung around awkwardly in mid air and landed on his shoulders. Figuratively speaking, of course.

He stood uneasily, trying to think of what he should do. Ever since he had come to this village he had been getting the acute impression that he didn't understand other people enough. And right now was one of those times he wished that everyone else would be more simple. Or, if that was too much to ask for, that he was a little more complex…

It took a good ten seconds for that thought to sink all the way in, but once it did he decided what to do in record time.

If he ever wanted to get out of this place, he needed to make everyone believe that he genuinely wanted nothing more to do with Orochimaru-sama -Orochimaru, he corrected himself (he did believe in the value of solid groundwork). So, that being the case, how could he -quiet and straightforward as he was- deliver such a good act? The answer was: he couldn't. It was simply impossible.

However, someone more "complex" would be able to do it and do it flawlessly, he reasoned with the logic of someone ignorant of such conflicting phrases as "people don't change easily" and "people change." But right in front of him was some pretty convincing evidence that people could change. He called it Sakura. Or he had, until it changed. But now he would call it Sakura again, and still call her Sakura when she changed again. And she would call the new him "Kimimaro." Maybe that was a little on the existential side of things, but that wasn't the point. The point was it made sense in his mind.

Step one: start acting like one of them- but ease yourself into it.

Sakura had just about managed to calm herself down when Kimimaro moved again. She hadn't moved her hands away from her eyes, so she couldn't see his face, but she heard him sit down in the chair on the opposite side of the table. There was a small noise that sounded like fabric moving against fabric and then a quiet "knk" when something was placed on the table. It was an interesting enough noise to get Sakura to spread her fingers slightly so she could see what it was.

In the fading light and between her fingers she could make out a vague shape. She couldn't tell what colour it was exactly, but it was a dark colour. Still curious, she removed a hand and looked at it more carefully. The polished metal of the forehead protector was awash with the amber glow of the setting sun from outside. He must have spent at least a little time polishing it before she arrived to check on him because she had never seen her own one sparkle so much.

'Kimimaro-kun…did Tsunade-sensei give this to you?' The incredulity of her question made him forget that he was trying to act like a Konoha shinobi barely two minutes after deciding he would.

'Yes.' Remembering to be more…unnecessary, that would be the wasp in the ointment.


	7. Troublesome

**Disclaimer: I do not own Naruto or any characters therein. They are all owned by Kishimoto Masashi.**

**Author notes: Just when I thought it was going to take another month- HERE IT IS! This chapter's a little on the slow and confusing side, but you've gotta get that out of the way at some point. Now then…ENJOYS!**

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The clouds wafted past airily. It was a beautiful day. Trees were swaying, birds were singing, and Shikamaru was lying on his back and yawning. He didn't much like the murmured conversations he had been overhearing recently, but then he didn't much care. It wasn't his problem. So the Sound guy -whom he had only seen for a few seconds while he was fighting the Sound woman- was in Konoha for some reason. The Hokage had OK'd it, so why should he care?

'Troublesome…'

He sighed. Even though he was thinking that to himself, he got this nagging feeling at the back of his mind that something ugly was going to happen sooner or later. But, the guy was probably being hounded by ANBU day and night; Tsunade didn't seem worried about it… There really was no point in trying to convince himself. He just couldn't relax, no matter what. Maybe he should go for a walk… or go hang out with Chouji… hmmm.

Chouji was still eating his way to recovery, so he wouldn't want to be disturbed… the walk was a safe bet.

Probably.

A few minutes later he had to change his mind about this whole "walk" thing being a good idea. He was currently being attacked by a worrying image. This image included Ino, Sakura, the Sound guy, and he was sure he could see Rock Lee barely managing to conceal the fact that he should have been better hidden from view in the background.

Worse still, the image was moving. Towards him. And he wasn't too sure he liked the fact that the three main components of the image seemed to have seen and recognised him. Maybe this was the ugly thing he had been expecting to happen. He could only hope, this was better than what he had imagined, but he still wasn't looking forward to it.

No sliver of recognition passed across Kimimaro's face as he was led by the arm in Shikamaru's direction by an overly energetic Ino. Sakura had given up trying to stop Ino from hanging off Kimimaro, since he was technically a part of the village now.

'Ooooy, Shikamaru!' Ino bounded over happily with Kimimaro in tow. 'Have you met Kimimaro-kun yet?'

Shikamaru looked Kimimaro in the eye for a second, pretending to try and remember his face. Kimimaro looked back at him and blinked… Well, he wasn't quite sure what emotion he could attach to that expression. "Blankly" would do.

'Are you planning on introducing him to everyone in the village?' It wouldn't be strange for him to know that Kimimaro wasn't from Konoha.

'Hey, there's no need to be rude-'

'Alright, sorry. No, I haven't met him' he scratched the back of his head casually. 'Well, I think I've seen him once before… Oh yeah!' he pretended he had just remembered 'I was talking to some red-haired woman, and he walked past.'

'Huh? If she was telling you that she liked you, I feel sorry for her. How cold.' Ino, obviously, didn't know the very significant meaning behind these words. But Kimimaro did. His eyes widened slightly as he fit the blurry face he had caught a glimpse of all that time ago to the dull-eyed shinobi in front of him.

'Nara Shikamaru. Nice to meet you.'

Kimimaro managed to regain his composure quickly, and introduced himself in turn.

* * *

In the end, meeting Shikamaru hadn't been so bad. He had been quiet, and careful to not turn his back on Kimimaro if he could help it, but he didn't seem inclined to tell anyone about him. They had even exchanged a pleasant conversation. But what was more interesting, was that he had fought Tayuya and…well, he wasn't exactly sure of the circumstances- but he had fought her and managed to survive. With an outcome like that, it wasn't totally surprising that Orochimaru-sam -Orochimaru's invasion had failed.

Ah- he was getting distracted again. He had to try and keep his mindset as a distantly curious new arrival. He had had some success with this outward image so far. Although, a few of the shinobi he had met had all but challenged him to a fight on sight. He still couldn't say he readily understood how these people thought, but he was a little closer now.

At the moment, he was training. He had practiced using a sword the day before, so it was back to unarmed training today. He had been adding scars to the log that already bore the marks of years of physical abuse, but practice was practice. Come to think of it, he hadn't-  
_Snap. _'Ah-!' _Scuffle._  
-seen her for a few days either.

He straightened up, turned around, and saw…nobody. He wasn't expecting to see anyone, but he was sure that someone was still hiding close by. Probably behind that tree over there…

Hinata was in a pinch. She didn't want the tall boy to think she was spying on him -well, she kind of had- but she wasn't _spying_ as such. More like _watching_. He was good at Taijutsu, obviously better than she was, so she thought that if she watched his movements for long enough she might learn something. So far she had learned that trying to emulate his movements caused her to sacrifice stability in favour of marginally more powerful blows, and she usually ended up falling over. He was built differently than she was, so it made sense.

More importantly, she had just stepped on a twig by accident, yelped in surprise, and hurriedly moved further behind the tree she had been watching from behind of. She couldn't run away- he would see her, and think she was strange. She didn't want him to think she was strange, because then he would hate her, and she didn't want that because she could learn a lot about Taijutsu from him. But what if he came over here to investigate the strange noise? He'd definitely find her hiding- and think she was strange.

But she couldn't hear anything. It didn't sound like he was walking towards her. It also didn't sound like he had gone back to training, or walked away. She decided to hazard a peek around the side of the tree. Much to her distress, his was standing quietly where he had been before, and looking in her direction. She darted back behind the tree as the thoughts _"oh no! Now he will think I'm strange" _passed through her mind.

What was she doing? The girl with white eyes and blue hair was definitely a strange one, but only in the sense that she didn't act like his best friend as soon as they met. And she didn't bother him at all, unlike the guy he had met yesterday. He couldn't recall the name, but he did remember he was very unsettling. He kept a dog on his head, he had red triangle marks on his cheeks, and had a look in his eyes that made Kimimaro feel like he was about to get a knee in the face. Compared to him, the girl was a much more pleasant type of strange.

If only that would make her actions easier to interpret. He was pretty sure that she had been watching him the day before last, or at least he was pretty sure now. Come to think of it, this was probably one of those times that his "newfound friendliness" was supposed to come into play. He cleared his throat.

'Good morning.' There was a faint noise of surprise from behind the tree, and a face flushed with embarrassment came partially into view.  
'G-good…morning' she replied in a tiny voice sheepishly.  
'You don't have to stand all the way over there.' Contrary to his expectations, this did not encourage her to leave the safety of the tree. She even moved -very slightly- further behind the tree. He decided to go over to her instead.

When she realised he was moving towards he, she shrank further out of view, but she was too nervous to get her legs to edge around the other side of the tree, so he managed to come almost-face-to-face with the shorter girl. This was where he was really on shaky ground.

'We haven't been introduced yet' he said in a tone of voice that made it hard to tell if it was a statement or a question. 'Kimimaro Kaguya. Nice to meet you' he said, bowing politely.  
'E-eto, Hyuuga Hi-inata. Nice to meet you too!' she squeaked and bowed violently enough to almost unbalance her.  
'Hiinata?' Kimimaro asked, not sure if he had heard her correctly through the stuttering. Hinata shook her head meekly. 'Hinata?' She nodded at this. 'Are you interested in Taijutsu?'

* * *

Some days you could just walk down the street, minding your own business, when suddenly; …nothing happens. But it happens suddenly.

Unfortunately, Kimimaro did not have one of those days. Where had it started again? Going out for breakfast with Sakura and then bumping into Ino who subsequently dragged him all over the village and introduced to a number of people. She had also invested quite a bit of his time in deciding where he should wear his forehead protector.

He had thought the forehead was an ideal place to wear it, but apparently it didn't suit him. "It was a shame to cover up his face" according to Ino. She had then decided to help him figure out where it looked best. The neck had failed both the "casual glance" and "careful inspection" tests ("a look out of the corner of the eye" and "stare-at for five seconds" respectively), and the upper arm had been rejected on similar grounds. Ino was pushing to have him wear it around his waist (possibly so that they would have _one _thing in common), but that reminded Kimimaro of Rock Lee too much, so that was rejected as well. Ino had slung it over his shoulder out of sheer disappointment, which gave Sakura an idea. Since then he had been wearing it as a sash. "It works" Ino had to admit.

And then he had actually had a chance to introduce himself to the girl he sometimes saw training. She was quiet and polite, so she was easy to get along with, and he had somehow ended up giving her some advice- he wasn't sure what it was advice of anymore, but he counted that as a great success on the road to acceptance. His circle of friends was growing, at the very least.

And then he had visited the Hokage's office to report Sakura's strange behaviour of the previous day. Come to think of it, Sakura was leaving when he arrived, but then she _was _learning medical jutsu from the Hokage (and giving regular reports about Kimimaro, of course). Tsunade had been interested by what he told her, and she considered it to be a useful piece of information, thus successfully concluding his first mission.

And lastly, Sakura had dropped by a while ago, and filled his cupboards and new fridge with groceries. Now, still not being certain he was interpreting the gesture properly, he assumed it was a gift of some sort as congratulations for officially becoming a Konoha shinobi. After a short conversation it became apparent that it was also partly a "sorry-for-losing-my-temper-and-taking-it-out-on-you" gift. But how was he supposed to know that? He'd never gotten one of those before, so it was still a victory as far as he was concerned, and he was indeed beginning to understand people better. Either that or it was beginner's luck… He was getting too excited over this…

He was shaken from his overstimulated thoughts by a knock at the door. He had almost left his bedroom before he even realised that it was odd to have someone come by after Sakura had left. It was good that he was settling into life here, but it was still strange for him to have any visitors apart from Sakura. So, logically, she had probably left something here by mistake and had come back to get it.

He was about to be extremely surprised.

* * *

'Hm...'

'Hmmm...'

'Hmm...'

'Do you think he actually wants to stay here, after all?' Some surprised rustling, a thump and a nearly-silent curse seemed like an insufficient response, so the ANBU member who had sat up too fast decided to properly answer the question.

'I still don't trust it- he changed all of a sudden-'

'Not really, he's been changing a little ever since he left the hospital…' a yawn escaped from behind the mask '…maybe the situation finally sank in?'

'You do remember who you're talking about, don't you?'

'Mnmkeh nno s t theh dehr' a third ANBU interrupted pointedly.

'…What?'

'Pfff! –Pd mahsk. Pffff! Yamanaka Ino is at the door.' There was a sudden surge of activity, punctuated by a large amount of foliage shifting.

'Are you sure?'

'Pfff! Yes.'

'What's the plan?'

'…Haaah' the second ANBU said dejectedly and sat back against the tree trunk. 'We don't have a reason to interfere, so just keep watching until something happens… _If_ something happens, that is.'

'So you're not sure!'

'Oh shut up, I have a headache. Why did we get stuck with surveillance this week?'

'Pfff! You lost ah -pfff- at poker.'

'Oh yeah…'


	8. Awkward Turnabout

**Disclaimer: I do not own Naruto or any characters therein. They are all owned by Kishimoto Masashi.**

**Author Note: AAAAAAAAAAAAGGGH! TT I'm so sorry my writer's block got so freaking bad all of a sudden! I didn't lose interest or anything, I just couldn't think of what would happen next. You know how sometimes stories write themselves? Most of mine do, so it's BAD JUJU when I can't hear it telling me what to write. But, YAAAA- your reviews have, once again, spurred me on to greater feats of anti-writer-block-ism-ness…thing!  
Putting that to one side; HERE IT IS, at long last!**

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Kimimaro strolled through the more commercially-oriented part of Konoha at a leisurely pace. This particular area was most notable for the number of stalls lining the street, most of which were doomed enterprises along the lines of "these _are _Soldier Pills! Definitely not cracked pepper and chocolate this time!" or otherwise intended only to remain open until stock ran out. The stalls that did have a life-expectancy exceeding one month tended to sell hot food with identifiable ingredients, books, or novelty items that -against all odds- remained popular for longer than they should have.

A useful skill to have when operating a small shop front was the ability to attract customers that weren't at all interested in the products you were offering, and then convince them that it was their lucky day for passing by. Kimimaro certainly hadn't come down the street with the intention of picking up a copy of Icha Icha Paradise, a soft and fluffy shuriken, takoyaki _or_ manju, but somehow he had been swept up in the flurry of commerce, and ended up buying all of them.

He left the street with the book stowed safely in a pouch at his waist, the fluffy shuriken tucked snuggly behind his forehead protector (which he was still comfortably wearing as a sash), a skewer full of takoyaki in one hand and a skewer full of manju in the other. He stopped walking as what had just happened dawned on him. He slowly looked over his shoulder to check if it had been some kind of dream -which he concluded it had not, in fact, been- before tentatively sampling one of the takoyaki. Apart from being extremely hot, it was very good. The manju were…less so.

He managed to get rid of the takoyaki by eating them, the manju and fluffy shuriken by means of a group of passing children, and decided to keep the book. You never know when you're holding a really good book until you open it up and have a read.

A few dozen pages into the book he had to reconsider that thought. Sometimes you could tell a book by its cover- or title, for argument's sake.

A sudden urge to put the book down had quickly evaporated when he came across something unusually…familiar inside. The early part of the book reminded him quite a lot of what had happened last night. If he was the main character, and Ino was…wow.

Very, very slowly he was beginning to understand why Ino had left at the point of tears when he had repeatedly failed to understand her intentions. His throat felt very dry all of a sudden.

It was going to be…awkward to try and talk to Ino for a while.

* * *

It was incredibly difficult to concentrate on the log. His mind kept running through the book -and last night- and the more he did so, the more he started making connections between what Ino had done and what a character in Icha Icha Paradise had done. Since he didn't know about the book, he couldn't have possibly known what he was supposed to do. Right?

Although, if it had followed the storyline…

For a moment his mind went completely blank, and he subsequently missed hitting the log where he had been planning to, and instead scraped his knuckles across the scarred wood. The brief, but sharp pain was enough to bring him back to his senses. The book had presented some concepts (or emotions, as other people would call them) which he was having trouble understanding completely.

'A-are you alright, Kaguya-san?' Kimimaro looked around and his eyes fell upon Hinata. He had forgotten she was there. Hey eyes were fixed on his injured hand, and she was fumbling around in her hip pouch for something.

'I'm fine,' he said, waving a hand vaguely. It was true that his skin healed very easily, since breaking it was a precursor to fighting because of his bloodline; it wouldn't be very helpful if pulling out bones made him bleed profusely.

'Are you sure?' Kimimaro looked at her face carefully, and mistook her worried expression to be doubtful. He held up his now healed hand as evidence and flexed his fingers. Hinata turned her gaze downwards and nodded.

It was at about this time that a thought struck him. It must have been a fairly large thought, or else moving very fast, because it seemed to stun him. He froze is place for a few seconds, his eyes wide.

Hinata looked up nervously, and saw Kimimaro looking, apparently with rapt attention, at a remarkably boring patch of sky. 'Kaguya-san?'

Without looking away from the sky, he reached out and gently took hold of Hinata's shoulders. When she was secure, he looked her straight in the eye. Being acutely aware of how strong he was, Hinata chose to freeze on the spot. Although it was doubtful that her arms and legs would have listened to her anyway.

'Hinata.' Kimimaro had an intense look in his eye that she hadn't seen before. She blushed heavily, but he took no notice. 'Do you…' he paused and seemed to search for an unfamiliar word. '…Do you have someone that you…_like_?' It was a question on its own, but the way he said to word "like" made it sound like he wasn't sure it meant what he thought. Hinata didn't pay this detail a great deal of attention, however. She had other things on her mind at that moment.

She squirmed slightly out of pure embarrassment as images of Naruto flitted through her mind, seeming to clash for a moment with an image of the person currently obscuring her vision. 'A-ah-um…w-well…y-yes?'

'How do you…feel when that person is around?'

She squirmed again, and turned a further few shades of red. 'Well-um…I-I, er…I get nervous!' she squeaked desperately. 'And, um- I, um, my heart beats fast!' She was starting to panic, but Kimimaro was still fixing her with a powerful stare, and his grip on her shoulders was steady. 'I-I…I, ah, I-um, I want to look at him, b-but I'm afraid he will notice!' To her relief, Kimimaro interrupted at this point.

'Does everyone feel that way?'

'U-um, not everyone!' Kimimaro looked at the ground, and fell silent, his expression unreadable. Hinata tried to get herself under control enough to speak again. 'Umm…Kaguya-san?' Kimimaro blinked and realized he was still holding onto Hinata. He released his grip silently, but kept his gaze fixed on the ground in thoughtful contemplation.

* * *

'Hnnnn...'

'How about you try smiling?'

Kimimaro tried.

'Er…maybe forget about smiling, yeah?'

Kimimaro stopped.

'Alright, say "cheese."'

'Cheese?' _P-shink._ The flash from the camera subjected a piece of film to Kimimaro's slightly perplexed expression. The cameraman was not convinced he would be able to escape vengeance resulting from a bad photo, so he chose to act as thought nothing much had happened.

'Ok, one more…here we go…' _P-shink._ The next photo was better- Kimimaro merely looked wary and bored. More accustomed to this variety of photo, the cameraman took it as a job well-done.

Once developed, the photo was put on an official document with his personal details and new identification number, which Sakura was scrutinizing with interest.

'Good photo,' she said slowly after a while. 'Very "you", but why is the "Date of Birth" blank?'

'I don't know what it is.'

'Really?' Kimimaro toyed with the idea of reminding her about his childhood, but not for long.

'Really.' Sakura went back to scanning the document, with more than a little pride that Kimimaro would have never come this far without her help. Probably. But Kimimaro was not so happy. Sure, he was happy about not being strapped to a bed, or being dissected by ANBU medical-nins, but he desperately wanted to keep a conversation going. At the moment, it was the only way to stop himself from thinking about what Hinata had told him- which, in turn, led him to draw some troubling conclusions about himself.

'Do you think I should have it retaken?'

'Hmm?'

'The photo.'

'No, no, it's really good.'

'Really?'

'Really.' To make the conversation just that bit more final, their orders of Ramen were served up quietly. And eating meant not talking. And talking meant thinking about what Hinata had…damn.

'Are you alright?'

_No!_ 'Yes.' _I don't know what to do!_ 'I'm fine.' _What does this mean?_ 'Completely fine.'

Sakura stared at him, a mouthful of forgotten noodles protruding from her mouth slightly. What he had said made it seem like everything was anything _but_ fine. He didn't usually talk like that. No, he didn't ever talk like that- she mentally underlined the word.

'Fhugya i…' she remembered the Ramen, and hastily swallowed it. 'Something _is_ wrong, isn't it?'

_Yes!_ 'No.' _Why can't I just say it?_ 'Nothing.'

She was beginning to notice- yes there was definitely a hint of forlornness on his face. He really had changed a lot, hadn't he?

'Kimimaro,' she removed the chopsticks from his unresisting fingers and lay them on the bench. Kimimaro was still staring into his Ramen, determined not to make eye contact. Sakura sighed and reached out slowly. She adopted her most soothing demeanor (it was the bedside manner all doctors need for telling a patient, in the most comforting way possible, that they are about to die. It could probably make a homicidal maniac pause, think about what he had done, and maybe even calm down). As with the chopsticks, Kimimaro didn't resist at all when she turned his head towards her.

'What's wrong?' Her voice dripped with anesthetic, chicken soup and honey tea. It made Kimimaro totally lower his guard. He would have told her straight up what was bothering him, if her voice hadn't made his mind go curiously blank.

'Eeehhhr…wrong?' The moment of defenselessness passed, and Kimimaro's face hardened a little. 'Nothing.'

'Don't glare at me like that.' Sakura let go of his face, and turned back to her Ramen, more than a little annoyed by his attitude.

Somewhere in Kimimaro's abdomen, he felt a pang of guilt.

* * *

'I'm not hiding anything.'

'Yes you are.'

'What is it then?'

Sakura growled at him, she didn't usually get angry at him, but he was strongly resisting all attempts to bypass his defenses. And she had been so close at one point too…

They had finished their Ramen, and were taking a walk through the village. They were passing the village gates, and there were a lot less people around than usual. Because of this, the only people who saw Kimimaro stop dead in his tracks with a look of shock on his face were Sakura, two shinobi guarding the huge green gates, and a small ANBU squad, who made it their business to see everything he did.

And, just by seeing this, how could they have known he was about to sprint out of the village?

'Shit!'

Hearing the yell, one of the gate guards turned to see what the problem was, and was surprised when a black and white blur shot past him, heading out of the village. Before he could quite come to terms with what he had seen, four more -equally blurry- black shapes rocketed past him, presumably in pursuit of the first blur. And then they were gone.

The guard blinked slowly and looked around. The other guard seemed quite as surprised as he was. And the only other person nearby was a girl with pink hair, and a look on her face that the guard could only describe as "disbelief."

* * *

Kimimaro whipped past the trees, scarcely aware that ANBU were gaining on him, albeit extremely slowly. He was very fast, after all. But something like four, or fifty ANBU members pursuing him couldn't have interested him less at that moment. Someone had come. He didn't know how he was so sure of it, but he knew that a shinobi from Otogakure was nearby. And it didn't matter why they were there. All that was important that they _were_ there.

_Almost…Almost…they're so close…_

Trees, traps, wild animals, nothing was going to get in his way now. He had heard the chime of a tiny bell, yes, that's how he knew. One of them was carrying bells, and their attempts to silence them had apparently failed. He was so close now, he could feel it. He could almost _see_ Orochimaru-sama…

And then, he saw them. Three shinobi dressed in the black, white and grey of Otogakure. And they saw him… And they looked terrified for a moment.

_Orochimaru-sama… how long had it been since that name last passed across his mind? Weeks? _

The three shinobi made to draw their weapons instinctively, but changed their minds and turned to run.

_Weeks without thinking of Orochimaru-sama..._

Maybe the shinobi were surprised to see Kimimaro, alive and well and heading towards them at high speed. Maybe they thought he was an enemy, disguised at him. Maybe they had spotted ANBU hot on his tail.

_But Orochimaru-sama- no, Orochimaru had abandoned him. He wasn't necessary, since he had the Uchiha now. He wasn't of use to Orochimaru anymore… _

Maybe they had just panicked at being discovered deep in enemy territory. Maybe they just wanted an excuse to pull out.

_But Konohagakure, they had almost accepted him. Like Sakura had._

Maybe, if they hadn't decided to run (for whatever reason), Kimimaro wouldn't have decided to kill them.


	9. Repatriation

**Disclaimer: I do not own Naruto or any characters therein. They are all owned by Kishimoto Masashi.**

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Silence dominated the Hokage's office. It was good at it, and had lots of experience with all kinds of things. Awkward silences, tense silences, awed silences- you name it, this Silence had done it. And, as a seasoned veteran, it was prepared to stay around indefinitely. Had the anthropomorphic silence seen the expressions on the faces of Tsunade, Kimimaro and several masked ANBU guards, it would have known it would see frequent work ahead, and maybe gotten a less-experienced silence to step in for it, as all easy-going veterans do.

Kimimaro was carefully turning a few things around in his head. These included, but were not limited to; Orochimaru, Tsunade, Konohagakure, Sakura, the dead Oto shinobi, ANBU, Sakura, his chances of survival resulting from teling the truth against lying, Icha Icha Paradise. He wasn't too sure about why the book kept popping into his mind- possibly to keep separate trains of thought away from eachother.

Tsunade did not look happy. She was pleasantly surprised that, after escaping, Kimimaro had killed a few Otogakure shinobi, and allowed himself to be manhandled back to the village by ANBU without any notable resistance. This was a good sign that, maybe, he had changed enough that he would stay in Konoha after all. But, as usual, that was a fleeting, at-first-glance kind of "maybe" that was immediately obscured by all kinds of conspiratorial reasons he might have done it. After all, it wouldn't be the first time Orochimaru used his own followers as pawns or sacrifices. Hell- Kimimaro had been one of them.

All three Oto shinobi had died from multiple stab wounds to the abdomen, and probably only a few seconds apart. This was fairly consistent with what Lee had told her about Kimimaro's fighting style. ANBU had grudgingly admitted that it had seemed like nothing more suspicious than Kimimaro finding, and eliminating a fleeing enemy, although they had pointed out that it was strange how he knew they were there.

All of this information sloshed around Tsunade's head as she tried to draw a likely conclusion about the unknown factors. And, increasingly, it seemed like Kimimaro had come good on his implied agreement to join the village. Still, it couldn't hurt to be careful.

'So…' she started carefully, dislodging the silence that had just been getting into its stride and everything. 'Let me see if I have all this. You were walking with Sakura?'

_Nod._

'And you heard a bell?'

_Nod._

'But you didn't realise it was a bell until you were fairly close to it?'

_Pause…__Nod._

'Right, but when you heard the bell, you knew there were Otogakure shinobi nearby?'

_Nod._

'So then you rushed out of the village to kill them?'

_Shake._

'No?'

_Nod._

Tsunade had wanted him to elaborate a little, but she was forgetting that it wasn't in his nature to do so. 'Then why did you go towards them?'

'I…' Kimimaro glanced at Tsunade, and decided to just tell the unadulterated truth. 'I had a lingering desire to return to Orochimaru-' he was careful to omit "sama" from the sentence '-I didn't even realise I still wanted to go back. Loyalty to Orochimaru is not easily…forgotten, it seems.'

Slightly surprised at hearing him speak about himself and/or Orochimaru at length, Tsunade didn't speak for some time after this. The story certainly had an air of authenticity to it. Yes…this was definitely not like any plan of Orochimaru's Tsunade had heard of before. It relied hugely on random chances, and had a low likelihood of success in any case, assuming the plan was to undermine Konoha in some way. That, and it was a little too elaborate.

'May I ask why you decided to stay here?'

'You may.'

Tsunade was ready for that one. 'Assume I just have.'

'Orochimaru…discarded me when I became terminally ill… When I was brought here, I started thinking that trying to go back to him might just cause him trouble. But, more recently…well…' he trailed off, and Tsunade was shocked by what she was seeing now. Kimimaro's pale face was tinged with red. And she had a sneaking suspicion where he was going with this conversation.

Sakura, huh?

That girl was turning out to be something of a miracle-worker. In a sense.

* * *

'Yah-!'

Kimimaro turned on his heel and failed to see anyone quickly darting behind a handy wall or shrubbery. Someone had definitely just seen him and panicked. How many people were there who were likely to do that? Hinata? No, the voice had been different. That only really left one person.

He made sure his footsteps were at least a little audible, and continued on his way. Cleverly concealed between a shrubbery and a tree, Ino breathed a sigh of relief. It was still too embarrassing to try and talk to him after than night after all. She quickly scolded herself for her cowardice and flushed face, stepped out of her hiding place, brushed herself off, turned around, and nearly passed out when she came face-to-face with Kimimaro. Her eyes widened, eyebrows rose, and a corner of her mouth twitched out of shock and nerves.

'Kh-kh-khh-ki-kh-k-Kimimaro-kun!' was all she could manage to say.

'Ino-san,' Kimimaro nodded politely, social deficiencies sparing her some agonizing questions along the lines of "hiding" and "about that thing the other day…" Instead, he had a simple query for her. 'Have you seen Sakura?'

'Eh? Sakura?' seizing on the opportunity to calm down a little, she looked away and pretended to think. _Calm down, damn it!_ 'Uhh, no, I don't think so. Ahahahahaha…' _Why am I laughing? God, I feel like an idiot!_

'I see.' With his usual implied "in that case, I'll excuse myself" tone of voice he used when he wanted to leave he turned and took a few steps. But stopped. 'Oh, about the other day…'

Ino's jaw dropped. _You're going to ask at this point?_

'…I'm sorry that I didn't understand your intentions…and that…I can't return your feelings.'

Too mortified to even check if anyone else had heard that, Ino stared at his retreating back, and tried in vain to stop another tide of red passing over her face. _"Can't return your feelings," huh…? I guess I lost to you this time, Sakura… But only this time…_

As he walked, Kimimaro surreptitiously returned Icha Icha Paradise to its hiding place behind his forehead protector/sash. The book had turned out to be helpful after all. He had needed to improvise a little, but the result should be the same. Hopefully.

* * *

'Hinata-san.'

'Haa!' Hinata made a small, quiet noise of the "how long has this guy been standing behind me for?" variety and instinctively leapt behind the nearest piece of cover. Kimimaro, being somewhat used to this, acted as though nothing had happened.

'Have you seen Sakura today?' He had been asking around for a while now, and by a huge coincidence, it seemed like nobody had seen her.

Some silent mouth work and vague shaking of the head indicated that Hinata hadn't either. She managed a "no" afterwards, just to make sure she got the message across.

'I see.' With his usual aloofness, he turned to go and Hinata let out a small sigh of relief.

This probably wasn't a good idea -since it hadn't been proven to be effective yet- but it couldn't hurt to try and tie up another loose end. He carefully took out Icha Icha Paradise and read from the page he had marked.

'…I'm sorry that I didn't notice earlier…and that…I can't return your feelings.' He read awkwardly. It was closer to the original line than what he had said to Ino, but he couldn't shake the feeling that there was something wrong about saying almost the same thing to two different people.

Despite the ill at ease way he said it, it seemed to have some effect on Hinata- though a little different to Ino's reaction. She looked surprised. Her pale skin certainly was turning a much darker shade of red, but she was also waving her arms in a desperately dismissive gesture and enthusiastically moving her mouth, although no sound was coming out.

Kimimaro took this as his que to leave, and did so at a carefully measured pace.

Hinata let her hands fall slowly. She could feel she had acquired a sad face without being aware of it. And she had a sneaking suspicion that it wasn't because she had failed to "correct" Kimimaro.

* * *

Eventually, he found Sakura at Ichiraku Ramen. He shouldn't have found her there, since he had checked twice already. But it did make sense if you factored in the idea that Sakura could also walk around the village while looking for someone. A slight oversight, perhaps.

She was poring over her bowl, and it looked as though she had something on her mind. Either that or she had a deep-seeded grudge against her food.

Kimimaro quietly sat in the unoccupied seat beside her. She must have noticed him, because she didn't look up, instead staring into the ramen even more intently than before.

He resisted the impulse to say "hello," since that was a horrible conversation trap. Sure, it was a good way to start, but if you didn't have something else to say immediately afterwards you were suddenly alone in a sea of awkward silence, with no paddle and a leaky boat. Besides, he had managed to think up what he thought was a much more powerful way of explaining things.

He unfastened his forehead protector/sash and delicately placed it on the bench between himself and Sakura. By his reckoning, the worst that could happen was that Sakura would think he was handing in a symbolic resignation. But she should be able to recognise the deeper meaning.

If human ears had been able to hear such a thing, Kimimaro might have heard Sakura's eyes focus on the little pile of metal and cloth, and maybe even some of the muscles around her eyes trying to fight back a malignant tear which had no right to be there, in her opinion.

Her quavering composure slipping away, she cupped her hands over her eyes and leaned on the counter with her elbows and sighed. 'You didn't leave?' she asked, keeping her voice remarkably steady.

'I didn't.' Kimimaro was getting that feeling that ice skaters get when skating on a frozen pond, and realise too late that they should have checked the ice before jumping on.

'So you're sticking by the Leaf then?'

'I am.' And now he could hear the ice creaking.

'Why did you have to run off like that? We thought that…' she trailed off. "You'd gone back to Orochimaru," was it? He might have been offended that she could have thought such a thing, if he hadn't been so ashamed that he had thought so as well, at the time.

'I'm sorry.'

'Don't apologise! Don't run off again if you're sorry.'

'…I'm sorry…'

'Idiot…'

Silence threatened to descend upon the scene. This was it! Just when the conversation was supposed to die! He had to do it now! And no amount of nervous shaking his body could dish out was going to stop him! Without giving her a chance to react, Kimimaro turned Sakura, still seated, towards him and puller her into an embrace at the same time.

Surprise was not an adequate describing word. Shock was closer, but horror would have been closer, if it wasn't largely incorrect. Overall, a good choice would have to have been "overwhelmed."

She had been crying into her hands slightly less than a minute previously, so the sudden realisation of what had happened, the shock of sunlight, and the sight of Kimimaro's silvery-grey hair next to her face was more than adequate reason to pause. She stared, wide-eyed at the wall of the tiny ramen stand and tried to stop her mind from being so blank all of a sudden.

'I am sorry,' he breathed into her ear. She stopped breathing, transfixed by those words, and numbly anticipating what he might say next. 'And…thank you. For worrying about me.'

A little, self-contained, objective part of her, way at the back of her mind picked up on something that the rest of her was too stunned to. Kimimaro was crying as well. His voice, nor facial expression would ever give this away, but the slight trembling of his body, and slow dripping on her back were pretty good clues.

Sakura's arms, which had been limp at her sides since he hugged her, twitched themselves into motion. They hesitantly followed an arc upwards until they came in contact with his back. And then…she held him. It was probably one of those most simple acts of mutual comfort that Kimimaro had never known before.

The owner of the Ramen stand nodded approvingly, completely unnoticed by everyone else. It was good that those two had finally figured each-other out. Ahh, to be young again…

**THE END**

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**Author Ramblings!: ****Heee-haaaw! And so the story ends. Come to that, this is the first story I've actually FINISHED. But… What am I gone write now? O.o Will listen to suggestions-es…**

**Still, it's been fun. And educational! And…thingy!**** I look forward to writing more soon!**

Edit: Sozfor the erroneous chapter update! Shintenshin and Shikotsumyaku are possible to mix up, I see...


	10. Sunny Day

Sleyman Rambles Incoherently; Stand-to and prepare to be bored by these words! Plz don't skip over them. Plz, plz.

I well thought that I had finished with this story, but this day has seen an auspicious number. 100 Favourites! I am both awed and troubled by this number, because between it and select reviews requesting I write another chapter, I feel moved to do so.

I'm currently in the midst of one of those urges to make atypical movements and strange noises, so forgive my massive-wall-of-text'ness for now. For I come bearing the gift of an Epilogue for those that desire such.

…BLAST! What am I going to have to do if I get 100 reviews for this fic? An M-rated chapter/one-shot KimiSaku lemon?

NOOOOOO! I suxor at writing lemon!

*Sleyman is consumed by a curious mix of rage, despair, and arousal*

**Disclaimer (starring **_**Borat**_**): Naruto is mine-**_**not**_**!**

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Some people just aren't "morning people." If pushed, Kimimaro would own up to not being much of a "person" at all- an honest statement which evoked amusement from those that knew him, and awkward uneasiness from those that didn't. Such were the tribulations of life.

Kimimaro woke up at approximately twelve minutes to seven, allowed himself four minutes to get his head straight, and rose. That gave him an hour and eight minutes until he was meant to assemble at the gates with his team.

And that meant he had around forty minutes to spend with Sakura before leaving on a mission that was expected to take three weeks. The prospect of being away from Sakura for such a length of time was disheartening, but he had to accept that these things happened. Going through his daily routine of washing, grooming, preparing for his mission and eating in near-record time before stepping out, he made his way to Sakura's house.

He greeted a few other early risers he recognised faintly, but didn't know by name, on the way. His robot-like friendliness was becoming his trademark in the neighbourhood, generally looked upon with good-humoured acceptance and mild amusement.

He reached the Haruno household at fifteen past seven, a time Sakura's father sometimes referred to as "too early for a decent breakfast." Kimimaro wasn't entirely sure he understood this, but at least knew he didn't mean it in a way at all disparaging to Sakura's mother, or her culinary prowess. He knocked on the door, which was answered almost immediately. He smiled. Sakura had been waiting for him.

'Good morning, Sakura.'

'Good morning,' she turned back to her parents, who had evidently been enjoying the view of their daughter waiting by the front door anxiously. 'I'm going out!'

Kimimaro nodded to them respectfully, but felt too pressed for time for any further greetings.

'Be safe!' her mother called back cheerfully. 'Ahh, if only I was twenty years younger...'

Sakura's father grumbled something that Kimimaro didn't catch.

'Ahh, if only my husband was twenty years younger, and less of a grouch!'

'I was only joking, dear...'

Sakura closing the door put and end to the rest of the refreshingly-familiar morning squabble that her parents amused themselves with when the mood caught them. Sakura rolled her eyes, less entertained. Kimimaro had never had a "normal" family, so spending time with Sakura's was an interesting insight which he indulged himself in as often as polite- much to her chagrin. Him being around "encouraged them," or so she said.

'Shall we?' she asked warmly, linking arms with him. He nodded, wanting to spend every second he could with her before he had to leave, and they started walking.

They wandered in an essentially random circuit through the village, doing nothing more than absorbing the atmosphere and enjoying each other's company. As more and more people woke, they recognised faces in the still-drowsy crowd, occasionally pursuing one that promised conversation.

'Heey, Nara!' Sakura called. Shikamaru and father, Shikaku, turned at her voice. They finished their conversation quickly, and the scarred elder Nara excused himself with a smile, a nod and a wave.

''Morning. What brings you two here?' Shikamaru asked, sounding disinterested- but that was just his way, Kimimaro had come to understand.

'Taking a walk' Kimimaro said simply. 'Before we leave,' he added as an afterthought.

'Ah-Right, yeah. Mission. Umm, Sakura? Can you do something about him before you leave? I'd rather not have him moping the whole way there and back.' While it was true that Kimimaro would miss Sakura, it wasn't like he couldn't focus on his mission if he didn't see her every day.

'You're exaggerating, slightly.'

'Puh, right. "Moping" isn't the right word. I meant "pining,"' Shikamaru countered with a grin. Kimimaro snorted, but couldn't think of anything witty or scathing to say.

'Kimimaro will be fine- won't you?' Sakura insisted, before turning in his direction, a pretend-questioning look in her eyes. He smiled back at her.

'All right, no need to gang up on me. I'll see you at the gates.' With that, Shikamaru left, muttering something under his breath. It was a fair guess he was saying something about "troublesome team mates."

They moved on, encountering more people they recognised. With a little guided wandering, they ended up on one of the small bridges that spanned the canal that meandered lazily through Konoha. The place held special significance for Kimimaro -Sakura, too, hopefully- since it was there that the two of them had first kissed. The memory was still fresh in his mind... not surprising, since it had been quite recently. But that was beside the point. It was now ten minutes to eight.

'...How _am_ I going to last three weeks without you?' It was a line pulled straight from Icha Icha Paradise, and had been well-used in the last few days, but Kimimaro knew of no better way to express himself on the matter. He sometimes feared the day that Sakura would figure out where all his lines were coming from, but he'd deal with that when and if it happened.

'You'll be fine,' she assured him. Again. 'I'll have to manage somehow as well.'

Kimimaro subjected her to the puppy-eyes he had been practising in the mirror for the last few weeks. Apparently, it still had some way to go, since Sakura took one look at him and burst out laughing. The laugh was infectious, and he found himself grinning at how foolish he must have looked.

'Ok, how about we give each other a good-luck charm then?' she said sweetly. Kimimaro froze. He knew that expression from Icha Icha Paradise as well. Had she already found out his secret?

'Uh-uhh, you mean...?' he asked nervously, feeling dumb and nervous. Sakura's face was turning the same colour as her hair. She nodded. Closed her eyes, and stood on her toes to reach his height.

His body melted and his worries evaporated in that short, public display of affection. There weren't many people around -most that were feigned blindness respectfully, but would probably start gossiping inside of five minutes- but someone, somewhere, whistled enthusiastically, effectively ending the moment.

With a face as red as her clothes, Sakura stammered. 'Wh-well, then-n. I'll, uh- I'll see you off from the gates.' She skipped a few hurried steps in the time it took Kimimaro to force his legs into motion.

* * *

'You're late,' Shikamaru observed. Sakura had been keeping pace with Kimimaro for the last leg of the walk, and he had been dawdling with an oddly vacant expression on his face.

'Sorry, sorry,' said Sakura, sounding anything but. Kimimaro still wasn't thinking properly.

'…' Shikamaru looked at Kimimaro's face for a few seconds before turning his attention to Sakura. 'Umm, Sakura? When I asked you to "do something about him," I didn't think you'd...empty out his head. He looks a bit strange.'

That seemed to do the trick. The comment was like a fishing net, snagging his consciousness out of what ever sea it had been drifting in. 'Squad Leader, I can't help feeling that you're being unnecessarily critical of me this morning.'

'Oh... Welcome back?'

'…'

'Knock it off you two, shouldn't we be having the 'brief?' It took Kimimaro a moment to realise that Sakura had said something that didn't make sense. She had said that as if she were coming along on the mission. When he turned to her, he was immensely surprised to see that TenTen was helping her strap on her equipment backpack.

Seeing his face, she couldn't help grinning, and had to put a lot of effort into not laughing at him again. The other members of the squad were less reserved.

Kiba stepped up behind him easily and landed a heavy slap across his back, laughing his head off. Kimimaro staggered a half step forward languidly before catching himself. 'Aaah, sorry we kept it from you until now,' he snickered, picturing Kimimaro's expression again. 'Your face just then was totally worth it though!'

Kimimaro grimaced, feeling the full impact of -what seemed to him- a colossal prank that they had played on him. It turned into a smile, however, when he decided that this meant he _would _be able to see Sakura for the next three weeks after all.

Sakura, now with pack secure, made her way over to him sheepishly. 'I'm sorry... for keeping it a secret.' Things were moving far too fast this morning, Kimimaro decided.

'But...why?' was all he could think to ask. For a moment Sakura seemed to be channelling Hinata doing her nervous dance as she formulated a response.

'Well, you-you only, um, kiss me when you think we won't be able to see each other for a while,' she blurted in one breath. Kimimaro goggled at her. Kiba howled with laughter and clapped him across the back again.

'All right , people,' Shikamaru interrupted, attempting to restore order. 'Remember we're on a missions, now... I don't want to have to hear the two of you making out all the way to the border,' he turned the pep-talk into a joke of his own on a whim. 'Get your pack on, Kimimaro,' he added over the ensuing laughter.

So it was that he walked through the gates of Konoha with a certain spring in his step. He didn't need to be told to focus on the mission. He was a shinobi, after all...

But he would drive Shikamaru crazy, stealing glances at Sakura every time he had a chance.

* * *

**THE END - AGAIN**

**Author Ramblings!: ****BWAAA! Bit short, and not all I could hope for, but this is an Epilogue, damnit!**

**Thank you all for the 100 favs, and keep them Reviews a'coming! I may actually make good on my lemony promise, depending on how much you spam me and how much effort I can be assed asserting. I might even rewrite the whole thing- upgrade it's**** schürzen****!  
**

**Now, I set you fine people loose on the world at large! GOGOGO!**


	11. Brilliant Years

**Author's notes: Woah-hey, hey. Look who it is. It's that guy who's eating the meat out of your sandwich right now- Sleyman!**

**It's been a hell of a long time coming (but you know how it is: entropy, spot-welding, demonstrably efficient indexing), but I finally motivated myself to finishing a chapter of something. So, as promised, here it is; Shikotsumyaku: Epilogue II, Brilliant Years (not a lemon, unfortunately)!**

* * *

The summer sun was high overhead by the time Kimimaro got around to the task of repairing the roof. Cicadas were making themselves known and sparrows flitted in and out of view restlessly. Kimimaro reached tentatively for the split tile that he assumed was the cause of the leak he had noticed during the tail-end of the rain the day before. Whether the damage had been caused purely by age, a hasty shinobi jumping off it, or a rather fat bird landing was not readily apparent. He tried to gingerly ease the tile out from between the rest and was rewarded by a sharp snap that could not have been mistaken for Good News. His hand came away with a lengthways half of the tile, and the tile that had been next to it was now also snapped in half. A slight frown creased his face.

'Hmm...' They were old and brittle to be sure. He was going to need more tiles than he had hoped.

'Heeey! Kimimaro!' Kimimaro turned towards the source of the voice, and found a grinning Kiba leaning against his fence leisurely and waving at him. Akamaru, a short distance away was urinating against a tree and gave a husky bark in greeting. Kimimaro lifted a hand and bade them good morning. Kiba responded by shrugging and pulling a quizzical face that seemed to ask "why are you on your roof?" Kimimaro returned the shrug with a half tile in either hand and an exaggerated expression of unhappiness.

'Need a hand?' Akamaru, finished marking his territory, moved to sit by Kiba and panted at Kimimaro happily. Kiba scratched the dog's ear absent-mindedly.

'I should manage- but, could I get you to pick up some new tiles for me?'

'How many?' Kiba asked without a hint of hesitation. Kimimaro still had a hard time asking for favours, so when he was forced ask out of a need for expediency, Kiba was always enthusiastic (or at least casual and off-hand) about accepting.

Kimimaro considered the tile-wide hole in his roof thoughtfully before responding. 'I don't think I could possibly break more than ten.'

'No problem! Come on, Akamaru!' Akamaru gave an affirmative bark as they whooped off across a few handy rooftops towards the market district. That was one thing Kimimaro could say about fixing his roof; it was practically a public service, as rooftops are the traditional traffic lanes for shinobi on the job. That in mind, he turned his attention to the now two half-tiles and tried to slip them out, much more carefully than before. He managed to get one out without incident, the other one snapped before it was completely out and Kiba returned while he was partway through his moderately unsuccessful attempt to remove the trapped piece with his fingers. Kimimaro was surprised to see that not only did Kiba a four tall stacks of tiles hanging from each hand, but that Akamaru was saddled with an equal amount.

'Planning on fixing your roof as well? he asked, half amused and half confused. Kiba lived in a small apartment near his clan's estate, and had a flat stone roof which doubled as a patio on occasion. The joke was not lost on Kiba.

'The shop was having a sale,' Kiba explained, setting the tiles down in the yard, and helping to relieve Akamaru of his burden. 'The shopkeeper said this was the season for doing the whole roof- nice girl.' Girl? Kimimaro tried to think of the best way to phrase his suspicion.

Failing that, he simply asked; 'did you chat her up for a discount?' Kiba barely batted an eyelid at the question; a fair indication that he had guessed correctly.

'When have I _ever_ done that?' he asked, feigning offence. Forty seconds later, Kiba asked Kimimaro to please stop listing incidents for fear that potential future girlfriends would overhear his exploits.

'You know they'll get wise to you if you keep pushing your luck like that,' Kimimaro observed, not for the first time.

'No way! They say I'm "ruggedly handsome." And if you didn't already have a wife, we'd have the ladies hanging off us all the time.' Kimimaro snorted at the idea and gave the fragment of tile one last irritated flick. It shot off unexpectedly and the tile above it, no longer receiving the benefit of having some weight taken off it, snapped itself in half and fell through the slowly widening hole. 'See? They're too damn old. Probably all need replacing anyway.'

Kimimaro rose his hands in defeat. 'You're probably right, fair enough...' he hopped down from the roof lightly to join Kiba on the lawn. 'Do you think there are enough tiles there?' he indicated the stacks Kiba had bought.

'Near enough, you might need some more. I dunno. I'm not a carpenter.'

'I should probably ask someone who knows what they're doing, in any case. Plus, I don't have time to do the whole roof.'

'I hear that. How are your preparations going?'

'...As well as I expected.'

Kiba whistled, pretending to be impressed by Kimimaro's plain-spoken opinion. 'High praise, for sure. I'd say you have some last-minute ass-kicking to do then. The festival's only a day away now-'

'I know. It's pretty much make-or-break time for a few that worry me.'

'Ouch. Just remember that it's meant to be fun, not perfect-'

'I _know_. You're worst than my wife.'

'Of course he is,' said a voice from inside the house. A moment later Sakura appeared, dusting her hands off. '_I_ like you just the way you are,' she gave Kimimaro an affectionate peck on the cheek, which he leaned into slightly with an expression that made Kiba grin. 'How are you today, Kiba?'

'Oh, not so ba-'

Kiba was interrupted before he could finish by a unified, excited yell of "KIBA-OJISAAAAN!" by Kimimaro and Sakura's two eldest children, Momiji and Ayame.

Momiji, the eldest, bore the dusty black hair and most of the classic facial features of the Kaguya clan- from what Kimimaro could remember, at least. Naruto, among other people, swore blind that Ayame was the spitting image of a young Sakura; although Sakura insisted that she had Kimimaro's eyes. Kiba grinned broadly, dropped to his knees and held his arms out, ready to receive them.

'A-hah! And here come my two favourite kids in all of Konoha!' Momiji came charging out the open door, Ayame a step behind, and they both jumped straight at Kiba, who caught them. 'Oh, no... Oh _noo_~'Kiba slowly tilted himself backwards until he fell onto the grass with both children squealing with delight in his arms. They then proceeded to climb all over him. Kiba struggled weakly before calling for assistance. 'They got me, Akamaru! Help!' Akamaru dutifully gave all three of them a solid lick across the face before trotting off. The children chased after him while trying to wipe saliva off their faces. Kiba picked himself up, laughing and wiping his own face with a sleeve.

'You're so good with them,' Sakura said, giggling.

'Hah, what can I say? They bring out the best in me.'

'Oh?' Kimimaro said mildly, in a tone that drew a scowl from Kiba as he recognised it as the precursor of a joke at his expense. 'I would have thought that they gave you an _excuse_ to _not_ act like an adult.'

'That...' Kiba thought for a moment, his expression radiating indignity at the suggestion. '...Is a baseless accusation, which I must admit is completely correct,' he finished and laughed haughtily.

Kimimaro covered his eyes with a hand and sighed deeply while his wife laughed at the both of them, familiar with the comedy act.

They watched for a few more minutes in silence as Akamaru played with the children. 'I hate to cut it short, but there's a few things I have to see to today,' Kiba eventually said, breaking the silence.

'Eeeeh? You're leaving already, uncle Kiba?' Momiji called from astride Akamaru's back (who looked surprisingly regal in the role of "Noble Steed," Kimimaro thought).

'I'll see you both tomorrow, don't worry,' he said in an unsuccessful attempt to placate them. Ayame would allow nothing of the sort.

'But you just got here!' she pouted, taking hold of Kiba's pant leg and shaking it accusingly.

'Yeah, that's not fair!' Momiji agreed, dismounting Akamaru and seizing his other leg.

'What's this? My legs feel heavy all of a sudden. I had better walk it off...' both children immediately wrapped themselves around his legs and screeched happily when Kiba took a careful step forward without bending his knee. He took both of them for a short ride before getting Akamaru to lick them off again. They ran back to their mother, shielding their heads with their hands.

'Say goodbye to Kiba,' Sakura encouraged the children.

"Bye-bye uncle Kiba!" they called in unison.

'Haha, bye. I'll see all of you tomorrow!' Then, he and Akamaru made their escape.

* * *

'Stop,' Kimimaro said wearily, waving a hand in a dismissive gesture. The dancers had seen the movement enough by now to know that it meant "take a five-minute break while I have a quiet word with someone." Konohamaru scuttled away with the rest until a conspicuously maintained glare left him with no excuse to pretend ignorance. He sidled over to Kimimaro with all the eagerness of a dog that expects a kick.

'...I did it again, didn't I?' he asked dejectedly when Kimimaro wouldn't say anything.

'Every time,' Kimimaro agreed, a little more harshly than he intended and Konohamaru shrank under his gaze. Kimimaro sighed inwardly. He was getting frustrated by Konohamaru's repeated mistakes, and he knew the young man had the ability to do it properly.

'Full-turn, half-speed' he said, his eyes showing a near-infinite patience his voice did not convey. Konohamaru hesitated a moment before taking a step back and doing as he was told. He lifted his left foot and did a slow turn exactly as he had been taught.

'Sun, moon, earth, full-turn, at-speed.' Now doing the three movements that preceded it, Konohamaru lifted his right foot to do the turn. He realised his mistake, wobbled awkwardly and lost the momentum of his turn, leaving him in poor form for the following set of steps. He made an apologetic face.

'You see where the problem is, don't you?'

'...Yeah,' Konohamaru sounded bashful, probably more irritated with himself for making such a simple mistake than Kimimaro was with him.

'Alright. Just remember to lift that left foot. I know you can do this,' he added as an afterthought. Konohamaru nodded and wandered to the nearest wall. When he thought nobody was looking, he gave the wall a sharp kick with his left foot before pulling a face that suggested he had struck with more force than was probably a good idea. Kimimaro sighed and took a sip of water.

The schedule for this year's festival was a tad on the brutal side, and insufficient time to prepare had been given- one of Uzumaki Naruto's organisational affectations, so far as Kimimaro could tell. The previous year's Harvest Dance Procession (proposed by Kimimaro and endorsed by the festival committee) had been so well received that it seemed Kimimaro had secured himself a life-long post as dance coordinator. And, though in a fit of arrogance he might agree that there was nobody more suitable for the role in the village, he was having a hard time finding the patience needed to deal with dancers less skilled than he. The dance was fairly fast-paced -considering the distance they would travel through the village- so the dancers were all shinobi, who were therefore used to prolonged physical exertion. They also had the necessary flexibility and coordination, though some just didn't seem to have "the knack" for it. Rock Lee, who now led the procession from behind Kimimaro, had surprised him by being amazingly duck-footed when it came to dancing and the two of them had spent many hours correcting his missteps. He had improved significantly once he got the hang of it, hence his important position.

A few stragglers, such as Konohamaru, persisted in their ungainliness; even to the point where the hour of their live performance loomed over them like a huge, grizzled old man who had decided he didn't much like them. Their own nerves were hindering them now. On reflection, kicking the wall may have been a fair idea. The pain would be a reminder of which foot to use (hopefully). Of course, it could have the opposite effect if he'd seriously hurt himself. Kimimaro sighed again, finished his water, and sauntered back into the centre of the Dojo that was currently serving as a dance studio. Not having really needed much of a rest, the dancers proceeded to their positions and a full half of them adopted the correct stance for the eighth sequence before he had a chance to say anything. Rock Lee managed to sneak a thumbs-up, grinning from ear-to-ear. While Kimimaro was tempted to thwart their efforts and have them practice the tenth sequence instead, they had pre-empted him accurately. He gave them a stiff nod of approval and motioned the small quartet band waiting in the corner to begin playing. The sound of pipes, bells and drums crept throughout the Dojo and the dancers moved.

To his satisfaction, and mild surprise, Konohamaru made no further mistakes.

* * *

'Kaa-san...' Hinagiku complained, pulling on her mother's hair impatiently in order to attract attention. 'Where's Otou-san?'

Sakura extricated her hair from the diminutive hand and attempted, once more, to adjust her daughter's Kimono. Hinagiku frowned in consternation and contorted her upper body lazily. The Kimono slipped almost entirely off her shoulders again.

'Otou-san is getting ready to dance for the festival,' Sakura said levelly. 'And if you don't wear that properly you'll have to stay at home tonight.' The threat almost sent the child to the point of tears, but Sakura was then able to dress her without additional resistance. 'There. Now go and show Ino-obasan how pretty you look,' she assured her warmly and patted her head gently, attempting to neaten her daughter's light grey hair as she did so. Hinagiku wiped her misty eyes with a sleeve, sniffed heavily and trotted off to join her sibling in the main room where Ino and TenTen were distracting them.

As though evoked by the thought, Sakura's fourth child, Kaede, burbled at her incredulously from where Sakura has set him down.

'Yes, yes, it's your turn now,' she said patiently, leaning over and hoisting him a little closer. He stared at her for a moment like it was the first time he had ever laid eyes on his mother, then positively screeched with laughter and waved his tiny arms gleefully. Sakura rolled him into his own miniature kimono expertly and checked the baby carrier was secured around her shoulder correctly. As she did so, Kaede, with an intense look of concentration on his face, patted himself down clumsily and let out a soft "waaah" of amazement at his new attire. He was then scooped up and deposited in the carrier at a speed that was bewildering to him. Then he realised that he was now occupying an enviable vantage point and cackled happily.

Sakura bounced him gently a few time to be doubly sure the carrier was secured properly, then followed Hinagiku into the main room.

Ino and TenTen, her enlisted assistants for the day, were combing the hair of Ayame and Hingiku, who looked delighted with the situation. Momiji was sitting off to one side by himself, making a show of wanting no part in the "girly" activity. On the other hand, and considering the neatness of his hair and the fact that he had been ready before any of his siblings, it was fairly obvious that he had already been fawned over at some point.

'Sorry to keep you waiting,' Sakura said, observing the scene. Ino looked up briefly from an intense scrutiny of Hinagiku's hair, before returning her attention to it.

'I was just thinking of braiding Hina-chan's hair,' she said with noticeable disappointment.

'I don't think we have time for that-' Sakura stopped when she saw her daughter's crushed expression. '-Ah... How about a ponytail?'

Hinagiku's eyes flew open. '...Ponytail? Like Ino-obasan?'

'Yeah, you can be just like me, Hina-chan,' Ino agreed enthusiastically, seizing on the idea. Hinagiku sat even more quietly than before, with a huge smile on her face, while Ino combed her ashen hair into an approximation of Ino's own hairstyle.

Sakura turned to check on Ayame, who had been unusually reticent throughout the entire exchange. Her eyes appeared to be trying to roll into the back of her head, an unsuccessful attempt at looking at the top of her own head while TenTen experimented. At the moment, she seemed satisfied with combing her hair into pigtails, and Sakura couldn't decide if they looked more ridiculous or adorable. Without being asked, Momiji made his opinion on the subject clear, and Ayame stuck her tongue out at him in response.

'That's enough you two,' Sakura chided them quickly. 'We'll be leaving ass soon as Hinagiku's hair is done.'

* * *

Kimimaro sat motionless under a tree just outside the village gate (the assembly point for the dance procession), staring at the piece of cloth between his hands. He had initially been thinking about how it was not dissimilar to a forehead protector, with the notable exception of the riveted plate of iron and the fact that it was white, but had long since stopped focusing on it. He was enjoying the feel of the cool night air, the sound of the forest, and thinking about the rest of the night's activities.

Neji, who headed the far-right edge of the procession, stepped into his peripheral vision. He was probably concerned that Kimimaro would remain in his present state for too long and delay the start of the dance. He tore his eyes away from the headband.

'Neji?'

'It's almost time.'

'I know,' Kimimaro assured him. He smoothed the headband against his forehead and used his fingers to run the fabric around and under his cascading hair, taking a moment to carefully tie it at the back of his head to his satisfaction. It was only a shade or two lighter than his own hair, and matched the completely white clothes he wore. This particular combination of white-on-white, he was told, made him look quite like a ghost. And this was most likely intentional.

'Are we all ready?' he asked, rising slowly. A series of prompt and unique confirmations by the Row Heads (leaders of the dancers behind them) rattled back to him, save one. 'Chouji, where are you?'

A surprised snort issued from behind a nearby tree, followed by the appearance of one Akimichi Chouji, hastily wiping his mouth. 'Good to go whenever you are,' he said with a grin, tucking something into his sleeve hastily. Out of sight, out of mind.

'Very well,' he turned back to Neji, 'is the band ready?'

'It has been for some time,' Neji replied, giving a little mock-bow. Kimimaro snorted at the spectacle and grinned for the first time that evening.

'Alright then. Everyone! Assume your positions!' At his direction, the Row Heads strode to the start point and formed a line. With satisfying speed, the rows of dancers formed behind them in almost complete unison. Contrary to what Neji seemed to be thinking, he hadn't merely been zoning out this whole time. And he _had_ reached a decision. This year's dance would not be just a repeat of last year's.

'Gentlemen,' he began, coming to attention at his nominal position at the head of the formation. 'I've spent these months teaching you how to move correctly, and going over the full sequence from start to finish. I think you all know, more-or-less, what you're doing now,' he paused to let this sink in and forced himself to not glance in Konohamaru's direction. 'However, dancing is not merely timing and precision. It is also expression. Therefore, while keeping to the confines of our formation and the routine, I want you to have a little fun, and express it with your body. But nothing _too_ outrageous, please. I'm looking at you, Lee.'

Lee laughed and rubbed the back of his head sheepishly while a babble of chuckles rose around him. Lee probably was the most likely of the older dancers to do something crazy, but accepted the light-hearted caution with a smile and a nod to show he understood.

'Alright, let's get going then!' as he spoke, he turned on his heel, gestured to the band and assumed the starting pose modified to look like a parody of Jyuuken. Neji scoffed in surprise and laughed before everyone else picked up on the joke.

Ahead of them, one of the musicians cleared his throat. 'One, two, three...' and the music started.

* * *

At strategic points around the village, Taiko drums had been set up to begin playing when the drummers caught sight of the dance procession. This was only sensible, since Taiko drums are by no means an easy-to-carry instrument. After breifly explaining this concept to her children, Sakura had a moment's respite from ceaseless queries about their father's exact whereabouts. The children themselves had located the nearest Taiko drum and were watching the drummer, who was having a quiet smoke, with hawk-like attentiveness. The drummer seemed unaware of their scrutiny, and lit a second cigarette while he waited.

Reasonably sure that the children weren't about to run screaming into the night for the sake of it, she turned back to the women keeping her company.

'I think the animal display was quite good this year,' she noted, referring to the last moving performance that had been interesting enough to distract the children for longer than five minutes.

'Especially Kiba,' Ino commented with a roll of her eyes. 'Though I'm pretty sure that Akamaru was the one who was meant to be showing off,' she added scornfully. TenTen giggled, but otherwise refrained from commenting, as did Sakura. Ino and Kiba seemed to get together and break up with surprising frequency, but with unpredictable lengths of time in-between. Praising or admonishing him in her presence, without knowing which was correct to do, was an old tactical nightmare that Sakura preferred not to participate in.

'The Aburame clan's "Bug Animals" were pretty spectacular as well,' she said instead. Ino was about to say something else when the Taiko drums suddenly leapt to life, the first deep tone booming out as the drummer strove to pick up the beat from the moving band and crush his cigarette underfoot simultaneously. A cacophony of cheers, highlighted by the high-pitched voices of three young siblings, put the conversation on hold. In fact, the children were so excited by the noise that they failed to notice Kiba, changed out of his performance clothes, had appeared among them. He nodded in greeting to Sakura and TenTen and made a face when he saw Ino eyeing him with a pensive expression, trying to decide whether her previous disapproval of him was outweighed by the impact he had made with his performance. Almost without thinking, Kiba's face set in determination, and he struck up a conversation with her before she had made up her mind.

Sakura suspected they would both disappear to one or the other's apartment before too long.

As the dance performance passed, as near to "capering" as Kimimaro would allow, amid cheers and catcalls and the enthusiastic applause of children up past their bedtime, Sakura could tell that this would be a night to remember, and that the festival would be hailed as "the best yet."

* * *

**Author's Notes II: Yes, yes, I know you're disappointed that there's no lemon. But if you bug me reeeally persistently, and at length, I may change that.**

**I could totally include a part about a street pedlar named Hourai selling lemonade.**


End file.
